Today’s Wordle #1431: Hints, Clues & Answer for Tuesday, May 20th

Wordle today: The answer and hints for May 20, 2025

How to Solve Today’s Wordle

  • Hint: To have endured or carried something.

  • Clue: This word has significantly more consonants than vowels.

⚠️ Spoilers below!

I started today’s puzzle with the word CASTE, which gave me one green letter and narrowed it down to 127 possible solutions. Finding a solid second guess was tough—I wanted all new letters, but I’d already used C, S, and T. Many of my usual backups, like CHAIR or HOIST, weren’t viable.

Then I remembered BOINK, a second guess I often fall back on. This time, it turned out to be incredibly lucky, reducing my options to just one remaining word: BORNE. Victory in three guesses!

At that point, I was feeling good—until I checked in with Wordle Bot. Somehow, it guessed the answer in just two tries, earning two points to my one. That also means it beat me, so I lose a point and walk away with zero today. Here’s the updated May scoreboard:

  • Erik: 12 points

  • Wordle Bot: 16 points

How Competitive Wordle Scoring Works

  • Guess in 1: +3 points

  • Guess in 2: +2 points

  • Guess in 3: +1 point

  • Guess in 4: 0 points

  • Guess in 5: -1 point

  • Guess in 6: -2 points

  • Fail to guess: -3 points

Bonus scoring:

  • Beat your opponent: +1 point

  • Tie: 0 points

  • Lose: -1 point

Friday is 2XP, so all scores (positive or negative) are doubled!

Play daily, track your score, or just enjoy the challenge each day.

Word Origin of the Day: “Borne”

Today’s answer, borne, is the past participle of bear (in the sense of carrying or enduring). It originates from Old English boren, which stems from beran meaning “to carry” or “bring forth.” This traces back to Proto-Germanic *beraną and Proto-Indo-European *bher-, meaning “to carry” or “to bear children.”

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