5 FiveLetterWords

Past Answers

Wordle Answers: May 2026

Browse all 31 completed answers from May 2026, with a page for each puzzle's definition, difficulty and solver replay.

May 2026 in review

May 2026 is complete, with 31 puzzles and every date recorded. On the site's word-property scale it was an ordinary month. The highest estimated difficulty occurred on May 28, 2026 and the lowest on May 1, 2026; 13 answers doubled a letter and 13 answers used at least one of Q, Z, X, J, K, V or W.

The hardest and easiest answers

Highest estimated difficulty

DIVOT 3.5 pts · May 28, 2026 · #1,804

DIVOT appears less than once per million words in the corpus-based frequency data, so familiarity alone sets a Hard floor. Its letters add points too, but corpus frequency sets the minimum rating.

Lowest estimated difficulty

PLUME 0 pts · May 1, 2026 · #1,777

PLUME has five distinct letters, 2 vowels and no uncommon letters. Common first guesses therefore test many of its letters.

The spread ran from 0 points on May 1, 2026 to 3.5 on May 28, 2026. Both numbers describe single words, not a sequence. A hard day and an easy one can occur in the same week, so the trend line below compares whole months rather than individual days.

The difficulty trend

An ordinary month. May's 31 answers averaged 1.9 points on the estimated word-difficulty scale against 1.6 across the trailing six months, and a gap of 0.2 points sits inside the normal month-to-month spread of about ±0.3. At roughly thirty answers a month that is sampling noise, not a change in how answers were chosen. The difference does not support changing openers or strategy. The scale combines general-English corpus frequency with repeats, uncommon letters and missing vowels. It measures word properties, not player results.

Letters and patterns

13 of 31 answers doubled a letter, above the long-run archive rate of about 31%. That is the pattern that punishes never-repeat guessing: on a stalled board, testing a doubled letter should have come earlier than usual.

13 of 31 answers used at least one of Q, Z, X, J, K, V or W, above the long-run archive rate of about 28%. Standard openers test these letters less often, so the difficulty scale adds a penalty for each one.

4 days reused an earlier answer. Repeats are ordinary in the archive, so do not discard a guess only because it has already been a solution.

Double-letter days: May 3 (#1,779) doubled F; May 4 (#1,780) doubled R; May 10 (#1,786) doubled A; May 12 (#1,788) doubled C; May 13 (#1,789) doubled D; May 15 (#1,791) doubled E; May 21 (#1,797) doubled E; May 23 (#1,799) doubled C; May 24 (#1,800) doubled E; May 25 (#1,801) doubled I; May 26 (#1,802) doubled C; May 27 (#1,803) doubled F; May 31 (#1,807) doubled E.

Uncommon-letter days: May 6 (#1,782) used K; May 10 (#1,786) used K; May 11 (#1,787) used W; May 12 (#1,788) used K; May 13 (#1,789) used W; May 14 (#1,790) used V and W; May 16 (#1,792) used V; May 17 (#1,793) used W; May 20 (#1,796) used K and W; May 22 (#1,798) used V; May 23 (#1,799) used K; May 25 (#1,801) used V; May 28 (#1,804) used V.

Repeat days: May 2 (#1,778) reused an answer first played in November 2021; May 12 (#1,788) reused an answer first played in November 2021; May 21 (#1,797) reused an answer first played in August 2021; May 30 (#1,806) reused an answer first played in September 2023.

How players fared

No day from this month has reached the Observatory's minimum public sample of 10 opt-in games, so no crowd numbers appear. The gate is deliberate: below it, a handful of results could stand in for a crowd and misrepresent a day.

Answer words are shown only for completed puzzles. Open a puzzle for its definition, difficulty and solver replay.

DateDayPuzzleAnswerWord difficulty
May 31, 2026 Sunday #1,807 → ETUDE Tricky
May 30, 2026 Saturday #1,806 → SMILE Used 2 times Easy
May 29, 2026 Friday #1,805 → CLANG Tricky
May 28, 2026 Thursday #1,804 → DIVOT Hard
May 27, 2026 Wednesday #1,803 → STUFF Tricky
May 26, 2026 Tuesday #1,802 → COUCH Moderate
May 25, 2026 Monday #1,801 → VISIT Tricky
May 24, 2026 Sunday #1,800 → NIECE Moderate
May 23, 2026 Saturday #1,799 → CHUCK Hard
May 22, 2026 Friday #1,798 → VOCAL Moderate
May 21, 2026 Thursday #1,797 → AGREE Used 2 times Moderate
May 20, 2026 Wednesday #1,796 → WRECK Tricky
May 19, 2026 Tuesday #1,795 → DUSTY Moderate
May 18, 2026 Monday #1,794 → LOATH Tricky
May 17, 2026 Sunday #1,793 → BYLAW Tricky
May 16, 2026 Saturday #1,792 → MOVER Moderate
May 15, 2026 Friday #1,791 → CREED Moderate
May 14, 2026 Thursday #1,790 → WAVER Tricky
May 13, 2026 Wednesday #1,789 → DOWDY Hard
May 12, 2026 Tuesday #1,788 → CLOCK Used 2 times Hard
May 11, 2026 Monday #1,787 → NEWLY Tricky
May 10, 2026 Sunday #1,786 → PARKA Tricky
May 9, 2026 Saturday #1,785 → SATIN Easy
May 8, 2026 Friday #1,784 → UMBRA Hard
May 7, 2026 Thursday #1,783 → BUDGE Easy
May 6, 2026 Wednesday #1,782 → LIKEN Tricky
May 5, 2026 Tuesday #1,781 → LATCH Moderate
May 4, 2026 Monday #1,780 → RISER Tricky
May 3, 2026 Sunday #1,779 → PUFFY Tricky
May 2, 2026 Saturday #1,778 → BRING Used 2 times Moderate
May 1, 2026 Friday #1,777 → PLUME Easy

On this day in Wordle

Past answers published on September 7 in earlier years. Every puzzle listed here is complete, so this section does not spoil a live game.

  1. 1 year ago
    Easy

    Nothing unusual appears in the letters: all five are distinct and familiar. Ordinary letter coverage works well on words like this.

    Puzzle #1,541 → Word page →

  2. 2 years ago
    Moderate

    Nothing unusual appears in the letters: all five are distinct and familiar. Ordinary letter coverage works well on words like this.

    Puzzle #1,176 → Word page →

  3. 3 years ago
    Hard

    The doubled L raises the difficulty. Once a letter shows up yellow or green, few players try it a second time unprompted.

    Puzzle #810 → Word page →

The Easy-to-Brutal badge combines general-English corpus frequency with repeats, uncommon letters and vowel count. It estimates word difficulty, not player results. Dates come from the site's recorded answer history.

Archive totals

31 Answers
C Most common start (5)
E Most common end (6)
DIVOT Highest estimated difficulty

Estimated word difficulty combines wordfreq corpus frequency with repeats, uncommon letters and vowel count. It measures word properties, not player results. Compare solver difficulty →

  • Easy 4
  • Moderate 9
  • Tricky 13
  • Hard 5

From the guides

Keep solving and playing

Today's Wordle hints Reveal clues one at a time without showing the answer. Wordle Solver Enter your clues to see ranked next guesses. Today’s Five Continue with five quick daily games and shared progress.