NYT Wordle today — answer and my hints for game #1431, Tuesday, May 20

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May 20, 2025 - 03:30

NYT Wordle today — answer and my hints for game #1431, Tuesday, May 20

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 Monday'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 #1431) - 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 #1431) - clue #2 - first letter

What letter does today's Wordle begin with?

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

Wordle hints (game #1431) - 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 #1431) - 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 #1431) - clue #5 - last chance

Still looking for more Wordle hints today? Here's an extra one for game #1431.

Today's Wordle answer is transported by.

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 #1431)

NYT Wordle answer for game 1431 on a green background — (Image credit: New York Times)

NYT average score: 3.6
My score: 3
WordleBot's score: 2
My skill score: 91
My luck score: 71
My start word performance: QUARK (409 remaining answers)
WordleBot's start word performance: CRANE (1)
Tomorrow's start word: MOODY

Today's Wordle answer (game #1431) is… BORNE.

Ask me to explain what a QUARK is and I might struggle. I'm not completely clueless about the sub-atomic world, but can I tell my bosons from my fermions and my gluons from my QUARKs? No, I can not.

I do know about Wordle letters, though, and that Q is the second most uncommon letter in the game, ahead of only J. And I also know that K is sixth from the bottom, albeit a lot more likely to appear than Q is.

With that in mind, I did not hold out much hope that as a start word QUARK would propel me towards a good score, particularly after yesterday's debacle (see below).

In one sense, it didn't; it left 409 possible solutions. But against that, I ended up scoring a welcome three anyway, so it can't have been all bad.

I doubt many people will have struggled too much with BORNE. It contains four very common letters, and one, B, which is very common at the start even if only middling overall.

It has an average score of 3.6 at the time of writing, which will be partly due to the sheer likelihood of people playing at least four of those letters early on. It's a simple equation, really: common letters equals low average score (unless there's an ER ending to it).

That said, it will also be the result of CRANE, the fourth most popular starting word, leaving only one answer and therefore a guaranteed two for anyone who began with it.

In contrast, I had to rely on my second guess. I went with LONER, to guard against it being an ER word, and it did the trick near perfectly – it reduced those 400-plus solutions to a single one, meaning I scored an unexpected three. But before I crow too loudly about it, I'll note that WordleBot was among those who began with CRANE, so it beat me with a two. Typical.

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

Yesterday's Wordle hints (game #1430)

In a different time zone where it's still Monday? Don't worry – I can give you some clues for Wordle #1430, 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 P.

P is a very common first letter among Wordle answers. It's the fifth most common in the alphabet and begins 141 solutions in total.

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 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.

Still looking for more Wordle hints? Here's an extra one for game #1430.

Yesterday's Wordle answer is an action in sports, or a field for sports.

Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1430)

NYT Wordle answer for game 1430 on a green background — (Image credit: New York Times)

NYT average score: 3.9
My score: 6
WordleBot's score: 3
My skill score: 75
My luck score: 30
My start word performance: SNORE (314 remaining answers)
WordleBot's start word performance: CRANE (70)
Tomorrow's start word: QUARK

Yesterday's Wordle answer (game #1430) was… PITCH.

If ever you need proof that I really do play Wordle every day and publish my actual games and scores – rather than faking it to make myself look good – then this effort should convince you.

After all, there's no way I would have deliberately played this game in the way that I did, and then told the world about it. It was, frankly, a big old mess.

Yes, I had some bad luck along the way, and PITCH is not necessarily an easy Wordle, but I made one horrendous mistake that just shows you can never let your guard down when it comes to this supposedly simple puzzle.

PITCH has an average score of 3.9, implying it's of middling difficulty, but I think it's slightly tougher than that in reality, and wouldn't be surprised if the score went up over the course of the day.

That's mainly because it's a classic too-many-answers game, with -ITCH offering the chance to go down several blind alleys signposted by a different first letter. WITCH, HITCH and DITCH are the obvious ones, although there are a couple of others Wordle would have accepted. There's also PINCH, which changes the middle letter, plus the likes of PITHY and ITCHY.

My game started very poorly, with SNORE drawing a blank and leaving 314 options. I followed up with a pretty good second guess, though, in the form of DAILY. This gave me only a yellow I in the middle, but removed 300 possible solutions to leave me with 14.

But, inexplicably, I missed all of the -ITCH options – focusing instead on CUBIC, MIMIC, CIVIC and CUBIT. It could have been even worse, though – I also missed the -IGHT trap, which is arguably worse than the -ITCH one.

CUBIT was deemed to be a "solid" guess by WordleBot nonetheless, and left only three words. But worse was to come. Far, far worse.

That's because I somehow decided that ITCHY was the only possible solution left, even though DAILY had already ruled out the Y. Cue a skill score of 0 from WordleBot and the rather terse comment that "This guess didn't eliminate any of the remaining words."

I realized my mistake immediately, and then it dawned on me that there were indeed still three words left, but only two guesses in which to narrow them down. There was no choice but to play a fifth guess which couldn't be correct – TWERP was the one I went for – in order to guarantee myself a six. All in all a rather humbling experience.

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 #1430, Monday 19 May: PITCH
Wordle #1429, Sunday 18 May: LIVID
Wordle #1428, Saturday 17 May: GROWN
Wordle #1427, Friday 16 May: FIFTH
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

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.