NYT Wordle today — answer and my hints for game #1420, Friday, May 9

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May 9, 2025 - 00:09

NYT Wordle today — answer and my hints for game #1420, Friday, May 9

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 Thursday'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 #1420) - 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 #1420) - clue #2 - first letter

What letter does today's Wordle begin with?

• The first letter in today's Wordle answer is T.

T is one of the most common starting letters in the game, beginning 149 of Wordle's 2,309 answers. That gives it a ranking of fourth in the alphabet, behind only S, C and B.

Wordle hints (game #1420) - 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 #1420) - clue #4 - ending letter

What letter does today's Wordle end with?

• The last letter in today's Wordle is 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.

Wordle hints (game #1420) - clue #5 - last chance

Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1420.

Today's Wordle answer is poor or worthless, or a meat dish.

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 #1420)

NYT Wordle answer for game 1420 on a green background — (Image credit: New York Times)

NYT average score: 3.8
My score: 4
WordleBot's score: 3
My skill score: 94
My luck score: 43
My start word performance: CLAIM (332 remaining answers)
WordleBot's start word performance: CRANE (29)
Tomorrow's start word: SPREE

Today's Wordle answer (game #1420) is… TRIPE.

I haven't always been a vegetarian, but in the years when I did eat meat I could never, er, stomach the idea of TRIPE.

I know some people consider it a delicacy, and I'm not about to disagree, given I haven't tried it – but the fact that TRIPE also means 'poor' or 'worthless' doesn't exactly encourage me.

I'm even less fond of it after today's Wordle, because I had to settle for a four on a day when the average is only 3.7 and when WordleBot managed a three.

Admittedly, start word may have been a factor here. Mine was CLAIM, which left 332 options, while the 'Bot's CRANE reduced the shortlist to 29. Better still were the likes of SLATE (23) and STARE (16), while IRATE – which is generally played by around 1% of Wordlers each day – cut it to four.

In contrast, I didn't whittle it down to those kind of numbers until late in the game. My opening CLAIM would have been a very good choice on many days, but today gave me only a yellow I and left 300-plus words.

I followed up with SIREN, which was more successful. But though it gave me two more letters, both were yellow and the I stayed that color too.

I now had 15 words to choose from, and drew up a list of options. All were -RI-E words; I had TRITE, TRIPE, TRIKE, TRIBE, DRIVE, PRIDE, GRIPE, BRIDE and WRITE.

I missed plenty, yeah, but wasn't expecting to solve it at this point – I just wanted to know which letters were most common. Playing BRIDE next included B and D, both of which featured in lots of words, while (hopefully) turning the yellow letters green.

With hindsight I could/should have left out some or all of I, R and E. I was pretty sure I knew where they would go, and could have included other letters instead. That's what the 'Bot said it would have done, playing DEPTH in order to get the P, T and H in there.

BRIDE worked well enough, but still left six words: TRITE, TRIPE, TRIKE, PRIZE, GRIPE and WRITE. I was fully expecting to score a five now, but was sure to take the time to work out what the best word to play was to avoid a six (or a fail). And make no mistake, that could have happened. If I'd played GRIPE, for instance, I might still have had a three-way choice between WRITE, TRITE and TRIKE.

TRIPE was the best choice in my view, and in WordleBot's too. It might leave a 50/50, but no worse than that. So I played that and got lucky when it proved to be the answer anyway, giving me a four that felt like both a victory and a defeat.

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

Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1419)

In a different time zone where it's still Thursday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1419, too.

Wordle yesterday had a vowel in one place.

* 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 B.

B is a very, very common starting letter in Wordle. In fact, it's the third most common overall, behind only S and 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 Y.

Y is the second most common ending letter in the game, behind only E. In total, 364 Wordle answers end with a Y.

Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1419.

Yesterday's Wordle answer is mild, temperate weather.

Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1419)

NYT Wordle answer for game 1419 on a green background — (Image credit: New York Times)

NYT average score: 4.3
My score: 3
WordleBot's score: 4
My skill score: 83
My luck score: 72
My start word performance: BLUNT (26 remaining answers)
WordleBot's start word performance: CRANE (187)
Tomorrow's start word: CLAIM

Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1419) was… BALMY.

I dream one day of living in a country that has year-round BALMY weather. That place is not the UK, which is cold, grey and wet for about 10 months, uncomfortably hot for about one month and only pleasantly mild for a few weeks in late spring and late summer. But oh how I would love to be able to stroll around in short sleeves at any time, and to be able to sit outside watching the stars at night without shivering, and to not need three fans to cool down during those brief periods when the sun does come out. It's a BALMY life for me, for sure.

I'm an even bigger fan of the word BALMY after yesterday's Wordle, which I solved in three despite it having an average score of 4.3.

That high average implies that others are finding it very difficult, so why would that be? It's not obvious; there are no repeated letters, no truly uncommon letters, and it's not a particularly unusual word.

I can only really put it down to poor start word performance. None of WordleBot's top 20 choices reduced the possible answers list to fewer than 70, and most were well above 100. There's no E here, no, S, T, no R… just three middling letters with an A and an L.

I got lucky with my start word, hence my three. My random word generator served up BLUNT, which gave me the B at the beginning and a yellow L to go with it. That left only 26 options, but I still needed a little luck to whittle that down.

I got it with BADLY, which WordleBot said was "a good guess" while complaining that "RELAY would have been more efficient". Maybe so, but BADLY cut my shortlist to two, whereas RELAY would have left three, so I'm happy with my pick.

The two words left to me were BALMY and BALKY, apparently, but the latter had not occurred to me. In fact, even after seeing it I'm not sure what it means or whether it's really a word. I went with BALMY, obviously, and scored a welcome three.

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 #1419, Thursday 8 May: BALMY
Wordle #1418, Wednesday 7 May: MACHO
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

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.