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NYT Wordle today — answer and my hints for game #1418, Wednesday, May 7

Looking for Wordle hints? I can help. Plus get the answers to Wordle today and yesterday.

May 7, 2025 - 00:14

NYT Wordle today — answer and my hints for game #1418, Wednesday, May 7

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Wordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Tuesday's puzzle instead then click here.

It's time for your guide to today's Wordle answer, featuring my commentary on the latest puzzle, plus a selection of hints designed to help you keep your streak going.

Don't think you need any clues for Wordle today? No problem, just skip to my daily column. But remember: failure in this game is only ever six guesses away.

Want more word-based fun? TechRadar's Quordle today page contains hints and answers for that game, and you can also take a look at our NYT Strands today and NYT Connections today pages for our verdict on two of the New York Times' other brainteasers.

SPOILER WARNING: Today's Wordle answer and hints are below, so don't read on if you don't want to see them.

Wordle hints (game #1418) - clue #1 - Vowels

How many vowels does today's Wordle have?

• Wordle today has vowels in two places*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Wordle hints (game #1418) - clue #2 - first letter

What letter does today's Wordle begin with?

• The first letter in today's Wordle answer is M.

M is a middling letter when it comes to starting a word. It sits 10th in the rankings, with 107 occurrences in the 2,309 answers.

Wordle hints (game #1418) - clue #3 - repeated letters

Does today's Wordle have any repeated letters?

• There are no repeated letters in today's Wordle.

Repeated letters are quite common in the game, with 748 of the 2,309 Wordle answers containing one. However, it's still more likely that a Wordle doesn't have one.

Wordle hints (game #1418) - clue #4 - ending letter

What letter does today's Wordle end with?

• The last letter in today's Wordle is O.

O is a middling ending letter. It ranks 12th in this regard, and finishes 58 Wordle answers in total.

Wordle hints (game #1418) - clue #5 - last chance

Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1418.

Today's Wordle answer is exaggerated masculinity.

If you just want to know today's Wordle answer now, simply scroll down – but I'd always recommend trying to solve it on your own first. We've got lots of Wordle tips and tricks to help you, including a guide to the best Wordle start words.

If you don't want to know today's answer then DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER BECAUSE IT IS PRINTED BELOW. So don't say you weren't warned!

Today's Wordle answer (game #1418)

NYT Wordle answer for game 1418 on a green background — (Image credit: New York Times)

NYT average score: 4.2
My score: 4
WordleBot's score: 3
My skill score: 93
My luck score: 51
My start word performance: CABIN (29 remaining answers)
WordleBot's start word performance: CRANE (37)
Tomorrow's start word: BLUNT

Today's Wordle answer (game #1418) is… MACHO.

I'm not sure I could ever be described as being MACHO, and that's just fine by me, the pen being mightier than the sword and all that. Put me in a fight and I'd have no chance – unless that fight is conducted by way of a game of Wordle, of course, in which case I'd have a chance.

Not that I was particularly successful today, scoring a four despite having had only 29 words left after the first guess. WordleBot battered me into submission, scoring a three. If we were playing Wordle Golf against each other then the 'Bot would have had an advantage over me for sure.

Speaking of which… if you want to play a round of Wordle Golf against me then here's my scorecard, in honor of yesterday's Wordle Day. The games (or holes) can be found on the NYT website here.

That's not a bad round, though I say it myself. I've never played golf properly in real life, but I'm fairly certain I could never shoot a 60 if I did. 160 maybe…

Anyway, back to today's game. MACHO is unusual in that it features the common CH combination but not at the start or end. That may have complicated the solving process today, which in turn may have led to the reasonably high average score of 4.2 at the time of writing.

Or it could be the fact that in isolation H is not a common letter, and neither is the M that starts the word. Neither are uncommon either – they are just middling letters.

I can't help but feel that I should have got home in three though. My opening CABIN left 29 options, but my follow up of PERCH could only reduce that to five. If I'd have been as smart as WordleBot I'd have chosen HOTEL, which would have left only one answer.

As it was, I had to use the third guess to narrow them down. Of the five options I found three: HAVOC, MACHO and HACKY. The two I missed were YACHT, which I always forget because it's spelled in such a weird way, and DACHA, which I'd be surprised if it were a real answer.

Between the three I had, HAVOC seemed as good a guess as any. It wasn't right, but it did leave MACHO as the only answer, so I played that next for a par four.

How did you do today? Send me an email or let me know in the comments.

Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1417)

In a different time zone where it's still Tuesday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1417, too.

Wordle yesterday had vowels in three places.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

The first letter in yesterday's Wordle answer was S.

S is the most common starting letter in the game, featuring in 365 of Wordle's 2,309 answers. In fact, it's almost twice as likely to begin an answer as the next most common starting letter, C.

There were no repeated letters in yesterday's Wordle.

Repeated letters are quite common in the game, with 748 of the 2,309 Wordle answers containing one. However, it's still more likely that a Wordle doesn't have one.

The last letter in yesterday's Wordle was E.

E is the most common letter to end a Wordle answer by far. That's one of the reasons why many of the best start words, including SLATE, CRANE, CRATE and STARE, all end with one.

Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1417.

Yesterday's Wordle answer is a group of rooms occupied together.

Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1417)

NYT Wordle answer for game 1417 on a green background — (Image credit: New York Times)

NYT average score: 4.0
My score: 4
WordleBot's score: 3
My skill score: 97
My luck score: 49
My start word performance: ROAST (40 remaining answers)
WordleBot's start word performance: CRANE (128)
Tomorrow's start word: CABIN

Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1417) was… SUITE.

This may well be one of those opinion-dividing games that arrive every now and then. That's because three of the most popular start words made massive inroads into the potential answers list, with ADIEU leaving only eight possible solutions and both SLATE and STARE cutting the shortlist to four.

Without a good start it may well have been more difficult, because that S---E format has many, many solutions – meaning it may have been tricky work to narrow them down.

In fact, S---E is by a distance the most likely format for the start and end of a word. There are a total of 74 out of the original 2,309 answers that have that structure, more than 30 ahead of the next most frequent format, S---Y.

That's not particularly surprising, given that S is the most common starting letter and E the most likely ending letter, but it does mean you may have struggled to rule out words until late on. That explains why it has an average score of 4.0, despite the good results for those aforementioned ADIEU, SLATE and STARE.

In my case, ROAST gave me a yellow S and T, but still left 40 options. I decided they would probably go together at the start of the word, so left them out of my second guess entirely, and instead played DICEY in order to gain as much information as possible.

WordleBot approved, and it did the job in that it reduced the shortlist to five. I found four of them: SUITE, SPITE, SMITE and STILE, but missed STEIN.

None of my quartet of words would guarantee me a four, but I decided to play one anyway in the hope that I might get a three, and that even if I didn't I would probably still avoid a five.

This was a risk – and could have backfired when SPITE left a 50/50 between SMITE and SUITE. I really, really didn't want to score a five again (I had enough of these last week), but got lucky when I went with SUITE and all five letters turned green.

Wordle answers: The past 50

I've been playing Wordle every day for more than three years now and have tracked all of the previous answers so I can help you improve your game. Here are the last 50 solutions starting with yesterday's answer, or check out my past Wordle answers page for the full list.

Wordle #1417, Tuesday 6 May: SUITE
Wordle #1416, Monday 5 May: SHUSH
Wordle #1415, Sunday 4 May: TROUT
Wordle #1414, Saturday 3 May: PATSY
Wordle #1413, Friday 2 May: WHOSE
Wordle #1412, Thursday 1 May: ADEPT
Wordle #1411, Wednesday 30 April: IDLER
Wordle #1410, Tuesday 29 April: BLISS
Wordle #1409, Monday 28 April: DUMMY
Wordle #1408, Sunday 27 April: WEEDY
Wordle #1407, Saturday 26 April: CLASH
Wordle #1406, Friday 25 April: KNOWN
Wordle #1405, Thursday 24 April: GENIE
Wordle #1404, Wednesday 23 April: OZONE
Wordle #1403, Tuesday 22 April: ARTSY
Wordle #1402, Monday 21 April: SPATE
Wordle #1401, Sunday 20 April: PATCH
Wordle #1400, Saturday 19 April: INBOX
Wordle #1399, Friday 18 April: DIRGE
Wordle #1398, Thursday 17 April: STOOD
Wordle #1397, Wednesday 16 April: MORAL
Wordle #1396, Tuesday 15 April: ASHEN
Wordle #1395, Monday 14 April: CREST
Wordle #1394, Sunday 13 April: LAUGH
Wordle #1393, Saturday 12 April: NURSE
Wordle #1392, Friday 11 April: ARROW
Wordle #1391, Thursday 10 April: TURBO
Wordle #1390, Wednesday 9 April: WHEAT
Wordle #1389, Tuesday 8 April: SPARE
Wordle #1388, Monday 7 April: HAZEL
Wordle #1387, Sunday 6 April: VILLA
Wordle #1386, Saturday 5 April: FOAMY
Wordle #1385, Friday 4 April: KRILL
Wordle #1384, Thursday 3 April: SHEAR
Wordle #1383, Wednesday 2 April: CURSE
Wordle #1382, Tuesday 1 April: JEWEL
Wordle #1381, Monday 31 March: BOOTY
Wordle #1380, Sunday 30 March: QUOTA
Wordle #1379, Saturday 29 March: SORRY
Wordle #1378, Friday 28 March: VERSE
Wordle #1377, Thursday 27 March: SHEET
Wordle #1376, Wednesday 26 March: ELBOW
Wordle #1375, Tuesday 25 March: SHELF
Wordle #1374, Monday 24 March: ANGLE
Wordle #1373, Sunday 23 March: DOPEY
Wordle #1372, Saturday 22 March: AMBLE
Wordle #1371, Friday 21 March: NUDGE
Wordle #1370, Thursday 20 March: BASTE
Wordle #1369, Wednesday 19 March: SPARK
Wordle #1368, Tuesday 18 March: TIMER
Wordle #1367, Monday 17 March: LASSO

What is Wordle?

If you're on this page then you almost certainly know what Wordle is already, and indeed have probably been playing it for a while. And even if you've not been playing it, you must surely have heard of it by now, because it's the viral word game phenomenon that took the world by storm last year and is still going strong in 2025.

We've got a full guide to the game in our What is Wordle page, but if you just want a refresher then here are the basics.

What is Wordle?

Wordle challenges you to guess a new five-letter word each day. You get six guesses, with each one revealing a little more information. If one of the letters in your guess is in the answer and in the right place, it turns green. If it's in the answer but in the wrong place, it turns yellow. And if it's not in the answer at all it turns gray. Simple, eh?

It's played online via the Wordle website or the New York Times' Games app (iOS / Android), and is entirely free.

Crucially, the answer is the same for everyone each day, meaning that you're competing against the rest of the world, rather than just against yourself or the game. The puzzle then resets each day at midnight in your local time, giving you a new challenge, and the chance to extend your streak.

What are the Wordle rules?

The rules of Wordle are pretty straightforward, but with a couple of curveballs thrown in for good measure.

1. Letters that are in the answer and in the right place turn green.

2. Letters that are in the answer but in the wrong place turn yellow.

3. Letters that are not in the answer turn gray.

4. Answers are never plural.

5. Letters can appear more than once. So if your guess includes two of one letter, they may both turn yellow, both turn green, or one could be yellow and the other green.

6. Each guess must be a valid word in Wordle's dictionary. You can't guess ABCDE, for instance.

7. You do not have to include correct letters in subsequent guesses unless you play on Hard mode.

8. You have six guesses to solve the Wordle.

9. You must complete the daily Wordle before midnight in your timezone.

10. All answers are drawn from Wordle's list of 2,309 solutions. However…

11. Wordle will accept a wider pool of words as guesses – some 10,000 of them. For instance, you can guess a plural such as WORDS. It definitely won't be right (see point 4 above), but Wordle will accept it as a guess.

12. The NYT has added in some of its own words, that weren't in that list of 2,309 solutions. More will undoubtedly come over the next few years.