Ever since the New York Times bought Wordle, they’ve stuck with its simplicity—one word per day, five letters, that’s it. It occupies one tile in the NYT Games app, unlike the Crossword and Spelling Bee where users can scroll sideways to play previous days’ games. But now, that’s changing: subscribers will soon be able to access an archive—plus WordleBot is coming to the Games app as well.
There are free archives, but NYT keeps killing them off
If you wanted to play past Wordles, you used to be able to go to this unofficial Wordle archive—but the NYT asked the creator to shut it down, and they did. Discussions on forums like Reddit mention that other archives have been shut down in the past.
So far, the unofficial free archive Wordle Replay is still up, and appears to be fully functional. Another free archive, Wordle Archive, works but doesn’t accept the full range of legal guesses—it told me my trusty starter, ARISE, was not a legal word.
Where you can find the official Wordle archive
The NYT says that they are “rolling out” the archive on mobile and desktop, starting May 7. I don’t see it on the NYT Games website, even though I’m a subscriber. Maybe you will be more lucky.
The archive is supposed to roll out to the NYT Games app in “coming weeks.” Once again, I don’t see it on mine, but I’ll keep looking.
WordleBot is coming to the NYT Games app
The other big announcement from the NYT this week was that WordleBot will now be available from the Games app. Currently, when you solve a Wordle puzzle on the web, there’s a link to compare your performance with WordleBot’s. (As I’ve written before, this is a bot that solves the puzzle with computer precision, and then grades you on skill, luck, and how many guesses you took to find the answer.)
Until now, the WordleBot link has been missing from the Games app, which means I never bother to go and look it up. If the link were right there, I might take a look after finishing each day’s puzzle—which might ultimately make me a better Wordle solver. Again, I don’t see the bot in my app yet, but the NYT has promised that it’s on the way.
If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for May 18, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is harder; I got it in six. Beware, there are spoilers below for May 18, Wordle #1,064! Keep scrolling if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Wordle game.
Start by guessing a five-letter word. The letters of the word will turn green if they’re correct, yellow if you have the right letter in the wrong place, or gray if the letter isn’t in the day’s secret word at all. For more, check out our guide to playing Wordle here, and my strategy guide here for more advanced tips. (We also have more information at the bottom of this post, after the hints and answers.)
Ready for the hints? Let’s go!
Does today’s Wordle have any unusual letters?
We’ll define common letters as those that appear in the old typesetters’ phrase ETAOIN SHRDLU. (Memorize this! Pronounce it “Edwin Shirdloo,” like a name, and pretend he’s a friend of yours.)
There are three common letters from our mnemonic today. One is fairly common, the other is less common.
Can you give me a hint for today’s Wordle?
Like shrimp.
Does today’s Wordle have any double or repeated letters?
There are no repeated letters today.
How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?
There is one vowel and one "sometimes" vowel.
What letter does today’s Wordle start with?
Today’s word starts with B.
What letter does today’s Wordle end with?
Today’s word ends with Y.
What is the solution to today’s Wordle?
Ready? Today’s word is BRINY.
How I solved today’s Wordle
After RAISE and TOUCH, I tried BLIND to eliminate possible consonants. From here, I had only three possible solutions: I thought BRING was the most likely, followed by BRINK, and I finally guessed BRINY.
Yesterday’s Wordle was medium difficult. The hint was “someone who helps you with math,” and the answer contained all common letters.
The answer to yesterday’s Wordle was TUTOR.
A primer on Wordle basics
The idea of Wordle is to guess the day’s secret word. When you first open the Wordle game, you’ll see an empty grid of letters. It’s up to you to make the first move: type in any five-letter word.
Now, you can use the colors that are revealed to get clues about the word: Green means you correctly guessed a letter, and it’s in the correct position. (For example, if you guess PARTY, and the word is actually PURSE, the P and R will be green.)
Yellow means the letter is somewhere in the word, but not in the position you guessed it. (For example, if you guessed PARTY, but the word is actually ROAST, the R, A and T will all be yellow.)
Gray means the letter is not in the solution word at all. (If you guessed PARTY and everything is gray, then the solution cannot be PURSE or ROAST.)
With all that in mind, guess another word, and then another, trying to land on the correct word before you run out of chances. You get six guesses, and then it’s game over.
The best starter words for Wordle
What should you play for that first guess? The best starters tend to contain common letters, to increase the chances of getting yellow and green squares to guide your guessing. (And if you get all grays when guessing common letters, that’s still excellent information to help you rule out possibilities.) There isn’t a single “best” starting word, but the New York Times’s Wordle analysis bot has suggested starting with one of these:
CRANE
TRACE
SLANT
CRATE
CARTE
Meanwhile, an MIT analysis found that you’ll eliminate the most possibilities in the first round by starting with one of these:
SALET
REAST
TRACE
CRATE
SLATE
Other good picks might be ARISE or ROUND. Words like ADIEU and AUDIO get more vowels in play, but you could argue that it’s better to start with an emphasis on consonants, using a starter like RENTS or CLAMP. Choose your strategy, and see how it plays out.
How to win at Wordle
We have a few guides to Wordle strategy, which you might like to read over if you’re a serious student of the game. This one covers how to use consonants to your advantage, while this one focuses on a strategy that uses the most common letters. In this advanced guide, we detail a three-pronged approach for fishing for hints while maximizing your chances of winning quickly.
The biggest thing that separates Wordle winners from Wordle losers is that winners use their guesses to gather information about what letters are in the word. If you know that the word must end in -OUND, don’t waste four guesses on MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND; combine those consonants and guess MARSH. If the H lights up in yellow, you know the solution.
One more note on strategy: the original Wordle used a list of about 2,300 solution words, but after the game was bought by the NYT, the game now has an editor who hand-picks the solutions. Sometimes they are slightly tricky words that wouldn’t have made the original list, and sometimes they are topical. For example, FEAST was the solution one Thanksgiving. So keep in mind that there may be a theme.
Wordle alternatives
If you can’t get enough of five-letter guessing games and their kin, the best Wordle alternatives, ranked by difficulty, include:
Dordle and Quordle, which ask you to play two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles at the same time, with the same guesses. There is also Octordle, with eight puzzles, and Sedecordle, with 16.
Absurdle, which changes the solution after each guess, but needs to stay consistent with its previous feedback. You have to strategically back it into a corner until there is only one possible word left; then you guess it, and win.
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