Tom's Guide said on May 13 that today's Wordle answer for puzzle #1,780 was one of the trickier ones it had seen recently, and the numbers back that up. The average player will finish it in 4.4 moves in easy mode, or 4.3 moves if they are playing by hard rules.
What made today's Wordle harder than a typical midweek grid was that the answer had two separate features that can throw off a clean solve: it included a repeated letter, and that repetition sat inside a word that was not easy to pin down from the first few guesses. For a game built on narrowing possibilities one letter at a time, that is usually enough to slow people down.
The comparison is not flattering to the puzzle either. Back in September 2022, puzzle #454 carried a score of 6.3, a far tougher showing than today’s average, but the new result still lands in the range where many players will need more than the standard opening pattern to feel comfortable. That makes the difference between a quick solve and a messy one less about luck alone than about how early a player spots what the game is hiding.
That is where the familiar Wordle discipline comes in. Most players try to test five unique letters in their first few guesses to maximize information, and today's answer punished anyone who leaned too hard on that habit without considering a repeated letter. Repetition is one of the most reliable streak killers in Wordle because it can make a word look more open than it really is, while quietly blocking the path to the finish.
Tom's Guide tracks the daily New York Times Wordle every morning, so its take on today's puzzle is part score report and part warning for the next wave of players. The lesson from #1,780 is simple enough: when the grid starts giving you partial answers that seem too neat, the missing piece may not be a new letter at all. It may be one you have already used.
