NYT Wordle today — answer and my hints for game #1427, Friday, May 16

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May 16, 2025 - 01:42

NYT Wordle today — answer and my hints for game #1427, Friday, May 16

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 #1427) - clue #1 - Vowels

How many vowels does today's Wordle have?

• Wordle today has 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).

Wordle hints (game #1427) - clue #2 - first letter

What letter does today's Wordle begin with?

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

F is a very common starting letter in Wordle. It ranks seventh behind only S, C, B, T, P and A and overall there are 135 solutions that begin with this letter.

Wordle hints (game #1427) - clue #3 - repeated letters

Does today's Wordle have any repeated letters?

• There are 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 #1427) - clue #4 - ending letter

What letter does today's Wordle end with?

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

H is a regular visitor to the final spot in a Wordle word. It occurs 137 times at the end of a Wordle answer, making it the sixth most common letter there.

Wordle hints (game #1427) - clue #5 - last chance

Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1427.

Today's Wordle answer is a fraction.

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 #1427)

NYT Wordle answer for game 1427 on a green background — (Image credit: New York Times)

NYT average score: 5.0
My score: 4
WordleBot's score: 3
My skill score: 94
My luck score: 59
My start word performance: CHUMP (140 remaining answers)
WordleBot's start word performance: CRANE (356)
Tomorrow's start word: TRIBE

Today's Wordle answer (game #1427) is… FIFTH.

Wordle creator Josh Wardle was clearly a fan of numerical solutions, because we've now had almost all of those that could ever be answers.

Of the fractions, we've so far had FIRST (#56), THIRD (#549), SIXTH (#1231), NINTH (597) and TENTH (#773), which means FIFTH completes the set (the others – SECOND, FOURTH, etc – are all too long).

Or the numbers, THREE (#924), SEVEN (#1190), FORTY (#986) and FIFTY (#616) have been answers already, which by my reckoning means only EIGHT and SIXTY are still to come. That's assuming they will one day be solutions, but based on the others all having been included, I can only assume that they will be.

None of that will have helped you solve it, of course, and unfortunately this is yet another difficult one. WordleBot says it has an average score of 5.0, and that means that we have now had the equal toughest week of Wordles ever. Yes, really.

I mean, just look at them: 4.2, 4.4, 4.1, 3.9, 4.3, 5.5 and now 5.0. Aside from AWARE, which was not exactly an easy one itself, they've all been above 4.0, with the last two above 5.0.

Partly that's down to repeated letters; FIFTH is the fourth in a row to contain more than one of a certain character, in this case F. In this specific case it may also be related to the fact that FILTH is an obvious alternative, and it was played by many people today.

Either way, there are plenty of complications to it, so I was pleased to score a four.

My start word, CHUMP, left 140 options – not terrible, but better than the result for WordleBot's CRANE, which left 356.

I followed up with TRASH, reasoning that as I had a yellow H that would probably go at the end of the word ahead of either a T or an S to make the very common TH or SH combinations.

My hunch was right; the H turned green and the T yellow, which pretty much guaranteed that it would be a TH word. And in fact, there were now only five of these: FILTH, FIFTH, NINTH, WIDTH and BOOTH, all of which I managed to identify.

Playing FILTH or FIFTH was the best option here, because going for any of the other three words would have left a three or possibly even four-way choice on the next guess. FILTH and FIFTH, meanwhile, would leave a 50/50 at worst.

I could instead have gone for a narrowing-down word in order to guarantee a solve in four – and I nearly did. But in the end I decided that the odds were in my favor, so went with FILTH. It wasn't correct, but it left FIFTH as the only remaining solution, so I scored a four anyway.

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

Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1426)

In a different time zone where it's still Thursday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1426, 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 E.

We don't get many Wordle answers that start with an E – though it's the most common letter in the game, it's only the 14th most likely to begin a solution.

There were 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 R.

R is a very common letter to end a Wordle answer – it's actually the 4th most common there, behind E, Y and T.

Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1426.

Yesterday's Wordle answer is enthusiastic.

Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1426)

NYT Wordle answer for game 1426 on a green background — (Image credit: New York Times)

NYT average score: 5.5
My score: 4
WordleBot's score: 4
My skill score: 86
My luck score: 44
My start word performance: DUSTY (777 remaining answers)
WordleBot's start word performance: CRANE (87)
Tomorrow's start word: CHUMP

Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1426) was… EAGER.

Phew, well this was a tough one! At the time of writing, EAGER has an average score of 5.5. That's incredibly high – in fact, it's the second most difficult this year (behind ROWER, 5.6) and the equal fifth hardest ever. Or at least among the answers I have an average score for, which is about 1,100 of them.

It's not so hard to see why it's providing such a challenge: not only is it an ER word, but it's an ER word with a repeated letter.

More than that, the E at the start is unexpected. The -AGER format has four solutions, with PAGER, WAGER and LAGER the other three. But it's easy to overlook EAGER in that company; the brain is naturally drawn towards placing a consonant in front of that A in the second position.

And that's assuming you even had the G in the middle. Lots of people played the likes of PAPER, BAKER, GAMER, WATER, MAKER and WAFER at various points today. Many also played RAGER and CAGER, but they both seem very unlikely to be solutions.

Somehow, I scored a four – but to do so I needed a bit of luck on my third guess, and a lot on my fourth.

I began poorly, with DUSTY leaving 777 options and supplying no letters. I followed up with an ER word, as is now customary in these situations. There, it was not helpful. Here, it was, with LONER giving me the ending format.

That cut my shortlist to 44, of which I found a few dozen. Not that I was choosing between them as such – I just wanted to know which letters to play next. In the end I went with MAGIC, reasoning that one of A and I would probably be needed, and that M, G and C all featured in lots of my possibles.

This was a "great choice", according to WordleBot, and gave me the A and G. I now had four words to choose from, the 'Bot said later: PAGER, WAGER, EAGER and, um, RAGER. As I said above, I can't believe that's a real possibility, but maybe I'm missing something.

I had the other three on my list, and was torn between whether to play a narrowing-down word (maybe WIPED or something like that) and accept a 5/6, or to shoot for the answer and possibly end up with a six.

I was confident that it wouldn't be worse than a six, so uncharacteristically decided to go for it – and got lucky. I played EAGER, and to my relief scored a four that felt like a real success.

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 #1426, Thursday 15 May: EAGER
Wordle #1425, Wednesday 14 May: BONGO
Wordle #1424, Tuesday 13 May: AWARE
Wordle #1423, Monday 12 May: BICEP
Wordle #1422, Sunday 11 May: DOWEL
Wordle #1421, Saturday 10 May: YEAST
Wordle #1420, Friday 9 May: TRIPE
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

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.