If you're struggling with today's Wordle, then you're probably not alone.
We track the daily word game from the New York Times every morning, and according to our own Wordle expert, the answer for May 13 is one of the trickier ones we've had recently.
The average player will complete Wordle #1,780 in 4.4 moves in easy mode, or 4.3 if playing by hard rules, according to the NYT's WordleBot analysis. So it's not boss-level hard, but it's certainly enough to need a Wordle hint or two.
Since we've been covering Wordle for a long time, you may be interested to know that puzzle #454 back in September 2022 arrived with a score of 6.3.
We'll dive into why it's a tough Wordle today below (which may help if you haven't solved it yet), and then we'll reveal the answer below beneath the spoiler warning.
What makes today's Wordle answer difficult?
There are two parts to today's answer that make it particularly difficult to guess, and that's because there's a repeated letter — one of the most reliable streak killers in Wordle. Most players naturally prioritize testing five unique letters in their first few guesses to maximize information.
To make things even more difficult, one character in today's answer ranks among the ten most common Wordle letters.
Finally, the actual word itself is probably not one that many of us use on a day-to-day basis. All of which adds up to a Wordle answer that's more difficult than usual to solve.
If you haven't figured it out yet, then you can find the answer below beneath the spoiler warning.
May 13's Wordle answer
So, what's the answer to today's challenging Wordle #1,789?
It's "dowdy".
If you've not come across this word before, I wouldn't blame you. It's a descriptive adjective that means "unfashionable," "drab," or "frumpy."
And while you might recognise it after the fact, it does not come to mind over more common-sounding words like "rowdy" or "howdy".
Social media reacts
As you'd expect, plenty of players have taken to social media to comment on today's answer breaking their streaks.
WARNING WORDLE ANSWER .....MY WORDLE STREAK NOOOOO pic.twitter.com/KCIw0poGGOMay 13, 2026
Just lost My 70+ day streak on wordle… I’m not okayMay 13, 2026
I need to do some personal reflection for losing my Wordle streak with that final guess. 💩 pic.twitter.com/FoPlMA1SuuMay 13, 2026
How did you do? Did today's Wordle end your streak or did you guess it in time? Let us know in the comments below.
And if today's answer has ended your love affair with Wordle, check out our own Tom's Guide games to get your fix there instead.
