Wordle obscurity: May 10–May 16, 2026

Welcome back to my weekly seminar on linguistic trends, class. I have spent the morning reviewing last week's Wordle words and their corresponding Google Trends obscurity spikes. There is a particular joy in observing the data when players, after a taxing challenge, flock to search engines to verify a definition. It is a fascinating look at our collective vocabulary gaps as we play our favorite daily word game.

About this chart. Each line is one Wordle answer’s search interest in the United States over the past seven days (Google Trends “Interest over time”). Values are on Google’s 0–100 scale, so you can compare how often people searched each word relative to the others this week.

How the Spike % is calculated. For each word we take the quietest day in that window (the lowest point on its line) as its usual level for the week, and the busiest day (the highest point) as the peak. The spike is the percentage increase from that low to that high: (peak − low) ÷ max(low, 1) × 100. If the week’s low is zero, we divide by 1 instead of 0 so the spike still measures how much interest rose from the floor to the peak. A larger spike means searches jumped more sharply when that word was the daily answer.

This week’s words

Obscurity winner

Our analysis of search interest in the US reveals that DOWDY was the undisputed obscurity winner this week. It achieved a staggering spike of approximately 36700%. It is worth noting the difference between a percentage spike and a raw chart swing; while CLOCK had a significant raw swing of 83 points, its high baseline interest as a common noun kept its percentage jump low. DOWDY, conversely, exists in a state of near-zero search volume until the daily scramble of the puzzle brings it to light, resulting in a much more dramatic relative change.

I should also mention a notable runner-up in WAVER, which saw a nearly 2000% increase. It seems many players found their confidence beginning to falter when faced with that particular five-letter jumble. On a side note for the anagram enthusiasts among you, the word MOVER hides a "VOMER" within it—that is the small, thin bone separating the left and right nasal cavities. A bit of a nerdy anatomical bonus for your next play!

Whether you solved the grid with ease or found yourself searching for definitions, remember that every challenge is an opportunity to expand your lexicon. If you would like to examine the raw data yourself, you may do so at the link below.

View these words on Google Trends (US, last 7 days)

This week nudged the all-time Wordle obscurity leaderboard: DOWDY muscled its way in, and the top five most obscure answers I've seen so far are now CAROM (+70000%), DOWDY (+36700%), ELFIN (+35900%), CUBIT (+33500%), GUNKY (+27500%).

Word game sentence

The newly hired mover did not waver as he checked the clock, his personal creed being punctuality despite the bulk of his dowdy parka.

This sentence flows surprisingly well for a collection of such varied terms, though "dowdy parka" feels like a bit of a fashion critique. It is always a delight to see how these disparate words from our favorite game can be woven back into a cohesive narrative. Happy puzzling!

For Math Nerds