WARNING: Today's loma response is the most difficult fifth, so be careful

Worddle is a simple game in theory, but sometimes a very difficult game in practice, and today’s puzzles of today who point home with strength.

According to Wordlebot, the useful play tool (although sarcastic), the #1,426 puzzle has an average score of 5.5 of the more than 40,000 people who have used it so far today. According to this measure, it is the most difficult puzzle since January and the fifth most difficult of all time.

A rapid Twitter/X navigation tells the story of the day, with ‘Wordle 1,426 x’ trends right at the top of the platform. And that is before most players in the United States have even awakened.

So what is the problem? To answer that I will need to reveal the solution, so do not read beyond this point if you have not yet played. You may get some suggestions from my Nyt Wordle article today.

Spoilers for today’s Wordle, game #1,426, on Thursday, May 15, 2025 will continue.

Fifth harder

** Final spoiler alert **

Well, the last chance to stop reading before revealing the solution.

Today’s response is anxious, so it is a word of ER. It’s not a surprise, right?

It is quite easy to obtain a list of the most difficult Words in history, because Worddlebot records the average of each game that has been played.

In turn, I have maintained a list of those averages since the ‘Bot was launched in April 2022, which means that I now have a spreadsheet of 1,138 games by difficulty.

According to this measure, anxious is the fifth hardest in history, behind only pater (game#454, average score 6.3), Mummy (#491, 5.8), Corr (#1214, 5.7) and Rower (#1310, 5.6). It is also leveling with jazzy (#712).

Three of those six words end in ER, which is probably the most difficult type of game to solve, although I personally have an even more hated Wordle format.

That topic continues as you advance on the list; Of all the games with an average of 5.0 or more, of which there have now been 28, a total of 13 have finished er. That is almost half of the most difficult games in history (obviously).

Slide to move horizontally

The toughest puzzle so far
Game	Answer	Date	Average score	My score
454	Stall	Friday, September 16, 2022	6.3	6
491	MUMMY	Sunday, October 23, 2022	5.8	6
1214	Corner	Tuesday, October 15, 2024	5.7	5
1310	ROWER	Sunday, January 19, 2025	5.6	6
712	STRIKING	Thursday June 1, 2023	5.5	4
1426	ANXIOUS	Thursday, May 15, 2025	5.5	4
304	LOBBY	Tuesday, April 19, 2022	5.4	4
613	More evil	Wednesday, February 22, 2023	5.4	6
675	JOKER	Tuesday, April 25, 2023	5.4	5
1037	CHEERFUL	Sunday April 21, 2024	5.4	5
1273	BOXER	Friday, December 13, 2024	5.3	5
555	JUDGE	Monday, December 26, 2022	5.2	4
714	BABYSITTER	Saturday, June 3, 2023	5.2	5
980	FLUTIST	Saturday, February 24, 2024	5.2	4
730	Kazoo	Monday, June 19, 2023	5.1	4
795	VERVE	Wednesday, August 23, 2023	5.1	5
990	HUNCH	Tuesday, March 5, 2024	5.1	5
1065	HITCH	Sunday May 19, 2024	5.1	3
1350	DIFFUSE	Friday, February 28, 2025	5.1	5
375	UNGAINLY	Wednesday, June 29, 2022	5	5
749	COWER	Saturday July 8, 2023	5	5
878	BOLD	Tuesday, November 14, 2023	5	6
1039	TRAMP	Tuesday, April 23, 2024	5	6
1055	SPASMODIC	Thursday, May 9, 2024	5	4
1208	Mom	Wednesday, October 9, 2024	5	5
1218	FIBER	Saturday, October 19, 2024	5	6
1300	WAFER	Thursday, January 9, 2025	5	6
1385	Krill	Friday April 4, 2025	5	4

Why are words so difficult to solve?

The problem with words is simply that there are so many of them. My analysis of each Loma response shows that 141 of the 2,309 original solutions of the game end in ER, which makes it the most likely end.

It may think that this would facilitate the resolution, because these words are easy to identify, especially since E and R are very common and, therefore, many people in their initial word.

However, the large number of them can make it really difficult to reduce the other three letters. And the problem worsens because almost all letters can appear in those first three slots.

Not all ER words are difficult, of course. Laser, for example, had a super low average of 3.3 in April 2024 (game #1038). But that is because those three other letters were L, A and S, which are very common in their own right, and that appear in many of Wordle’s best words.

On the contrary, the other letters in anxiety are an E, A and G. The fact that E is repeated makes it much more difficult to identify, because people generally do not play cards twice unless they think that there is a strong probability that there is a repetition. Doing doing it early always feels like throwing the opportunity to obtain information.

All that leads to what I call the problem of many answers, where the solution only differs in a letter from several other words. Today, Pager, Wager and Lager were alternative responses, and they may have occurred to people before he thought about repeating that E at the beginning.

This leads to the classic light of light failure, with four or five conjectures that are missing one or two letters in vertical lines:

Too many options.#Worddle1426 Worddle 1,426 x/6*⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩🟨🟩⬜🟩🟩May 15, 2025

#Wordle#Worddle1426Wordle 1,426 x/6🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩good pic.twitter.com/qxze5gtvlyMay 15, 2025

My advice on how to play these words

I have played all the Wordle and only lost once, in addition my streak is now technically in 1,228, although the inability of the NYT to deal with the people who play in different time areas mean that it is officially 63 years. And yes, it makes me angry.

Anyway, it is expected that it is not too arrogant on my part to suggest that I know one or two things about how to lose in this game. And the key is not to continue guessing blindly.

This is impossible if you play in a hard way, of course, because there you cannot put aside the letters that have already become green.

That means that if you find that pattern -a -er from the beginning, there will only be two remaining letters of letters to try to reduce the solution.

On the contrary, I was able to play magic in my third assumption and discard some 40 possible answers at once. That left me with only four options: search, bet, anxious and rager, according to WordDlebot.

I don’t think the last of them is a probable solution in reality, and I didn’t think about myself. In my head I had an option of three words, and three remaining conjectures, so I was now free to guess one of them.

I was anxious and I was lucky to write down a four, but if I had been bad, the player could have another word reduced to the side to guarantee a six in the worst case. Not losing my unofficial streak is more important for me than to get a high score, usually.

(Image credit: New York Times)

The other important thing I did today was to identify the pattern of the emergency room as soon as possible. My start word is chosen at random these days; I used to always start with my eyes, but I decided to shake things by changing them daily.

This often leads me to opening conjectures less than perfect for me, and today I had 777 options after my initial dust. But in this scenario I always play a word from ER to rule out (or in) that possibility as soon as I can. Today, that strategy was really worth it.

So there you have it: Wordle has another entry in his most hated list. If you lost your streak today, I pity. But don’t worry: there are still 900 Words to play, so there is a lot of time to build it again …

WARNING: Today’s loma response is the most difficult fifth, so be careful

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