Contexto Answer — May 18, 2026

    Spoiler-safe word-profile hints with a click-to-reveal answer.

    Daily brief

    Contexto #1338

    Monday, May 18, 2026

    ready

    Updated

    Today's hints

    Length band
    Min
    2
    Max
    4
    1. Its length sits somewhere from 2 through 4 letters.

    Difficulty: 4

    This band is shown with every input used to compute it.

    • coarse length band
    • archive length distribution

    Contexto answer

    Monday, May 18, 2026 · #1338
    AIR

    The Contexto answer for Monday, May 18, 2026 was AIR.

    Yesterday's full result

    2026-05-17

    Puzzle Number
    1337
    Answer
    KAYAK
    Word Info
    Word
    KAYAK
    Scrabble Score
    16
    Wwf Score
    15
    Part Of Speech
    n
    Definition
    a small canoe consisting of a light frame made watertight with animal skins; used by Eskimos
    Look Alikes
    KAIAK

    Source verification

    Sources
    1
    Agreement
    single
    Confidence
    confirmed
    • 1: verified (0 ms)

    Checked 2026-06-18T16:14:32.000Z

    Recent answers

    • 2026-05-17 — puzzleNumber: 1337 · answer: KAYAK · length: 5 · firstLetter: K · partOfSpeech: n · lookAlikeCount: 1
    • 2026-05-16 — puzzleNumber: 1336 · answer: PERSIMMON · length: 9 · firstLetter: P · partOfSpeech: n · lookAlikeCount: 0
    • 2026-05-15 — puzzleNumber: 1335 · answer: COMPASS · length: 7 · firstLetter: C · partOfSpeech: n · lookAlikeCount: 1
    • 2026-05-14 — puzzleNumber: 1334 · answer: FINE · length: 4 · firstLetter: F · partOfSpeech: n · lookAlikeCount: 8
    • 2026-05-13 — puzzleNumber: 1333 · answer: PEPPERONI · length: 9 · firstLetter: P · partOfSpeech: n · lookAlikeCount: 0
    • 2026-05-12 — puzzleNumber: 1332 · answer: EYEPATCH · length: 8 · firstLetter: E · lookAlikeCount: 0
    • 2026-05-11 — puzzleNumber: 1331 · answer: CIDER · length: 5 · firstLetter: C · partOfSpeech: n · lookAlikeCount: 8
    • 2026-05-10 — puzzleNumber: 1330 · answer: ORCHARD · length: 7 · firstLetter: O · partOfSpeech: n · lookAlikeCount: 0
    • 2026-05-09 — puzzleNumber: 1329 · answer: DINOSAUR · length: 8 · firstLetter: D · partOfSpeech: n · lookAlikeCount: 0
    • 2026-05-08 — puzzleNumber: 1328 · answer: BAIT · length: 4 · firstLetter: B · partOfSpeech: n · lookAlikeCount: 8
    • 2026-05-07 — puzzleNumber: 1327 · answer: ERA · length: 3 · firstLetter: E · partOfSpeech: n · lookAlikeCount: 8
    • 2026-05-06 — puzzleNumber: 1326 · answer: COUGH · length: 5 · firstLetter: C · partOfSpeech: n · lookAlikeCount: 8
    • 2026-05-05 — puzzleNumber: 1325 · answer: FIREWORK · length: 8 · firstLetter: F · partOfSpeech: n · lookAlikeCount: 2
    • 2026-05-04 — puzzleNumber: 1324 · answer: PELICAN · length: 7 · firstLetter: P · partOfSpeech: n · lookAlikeCount: 1

    Archive statistics

    Part Of Speech Distribution
    N
    361
    Unknown
    5
    Adj
    1
    V
    2
    Word Length Distribution
    3
    17
    4
    68
    5
    76
    6
    61
    7
    66
    8
    36
    9
    25
    10
    10
    11
    6
    12
    3
    13
    1
    First Letter Frequency
    A
    14
    B
    25
    C
    42
    D
    16
    E
    9
    F
    24
    G
    15
    H
    13
    I
    6
    J
    2
    K
    3
    L
    17
    M
    12
    N
    7
    O
    10
    P
    44
    Q
    2
    R
    15
    S
    34
    T
    26
    U
    2
    V
    12
    W
    13
    X
    0
    Y
    4
    Z
    2
    Concrete Vs Abstract
    Unknown
    369
    Average Look Alike Family Size
    3.5
    Month Table
    • Date
      2026-05-17
      Puzzle Number
      1337
      Answer
      KAYAK
      Length
      5
      First Letter
      K
      Part Of Speech
      n
      Look Alike Count
      1
    • Date
      2026-05-16
      Puzzle Number
      1336
      Answer
      PERSIMMON
      Length
      9
      First Letter
      P
      Part Of Speech
      n
      Look Alike Count
      0
    • Date
      2026-05-15
      Puzzle Number
      1335
      Answer
      COMPASS
      Length
      7
      First Letter
      C
      Part Of Speech
      n
      Look Alike Count
      1
    • Date
      2026-05-14
      Puzzle Number
      1334
      Answer
      FINE
      Length
      4
      First Letter
      F
      Part Of Speech
      n
      Look Alike Count
      8
    • Date
      2026-05-13
      Puzzle Number
      1333
      Answer
      PEPPERONI
      Length
      9
      First Letter
      P
      Part Of Speech
      n
      Look Alike Count
      0
    • Date
      2026-05-12
      Puzzle Number
      1332
      Answer
      EYEPATCH
      Length
      8
      First Letter
      E
      Look Alike Count
      0
    • Date
      2026-05-11
      Puzzle Number
      1331
      Answer
      CIDER
      Length
      5
      First Letter
      C
      Part Of Speech
      n
      Look Alike Count
      8
    • Date
      2026-05-10
      Puzzle Number
      1330
      Answer
      ORCHARD
      Length
      7
      First Letter
      O
      Part Of Speech
      n
      Look Alike Count
      0
    • Date
      2026-05-09
      Puzzle Number
      1329
      Answer
      DINOSAUR
      Length
      8
      First Letter
      D
      Part Of Speech
      n
      Look Alike Count
      0
    • Date
      2026-05-08
      Puzzle Number
      1328
      Answer
      BAIT
      Length
      4
      First Letter
      B
      Part Of Speech
      n
      Look Alike Count
      8
    • Date
      2026-05-07
      Puzzle Number
      1327
      Answer
      ERA
      Length
      3
      First Letter
      E
      Part Of Speech
      n
      Look Alike Count
      8
    • Date
      2026-05-06
      Puzzle Number
      1326
      Answer
      COUGH
      Length
      5
      First Letter
      C
      Part Of Speech
      n
      Look Alike Count
      8
    • Date
      2026-05-05
      Puzzle Number
      1325
      Answer
      FIREWORK
      Length
      8
      First Letter
      F
      Part Of Speech
      n
      Look Alike Count
      2
    • Date
      2026-05-04
      Puzzle Number
      1324
      Answer
      PELICAN
      Length
      7
      First Letter
      P
      Part Of Speech
      n
      Look Alike Count
      1
    • Date
      2026-05-03
      Puzzle Number
      1323
      Answer
      SPONGE
      Length
      6
      First Letter
      S
      Part Of Speech
      n
      Look Alike Count
      2
    • Date
      2026-05-02
      Puzzle Number
      1322
      Answer
      PERK
      Length
      4
      First Letter
      P
      Part Of Speech
      n
      Look Alike Count
      8
    • Date
      2026-05-01
      Puzzle Number
      1321
      Answer
      WIZARD
      Length
      6
      First Letter
      W
      Part Of Speech
      n
      Look Alike Count
      4

    How this brief was computed

    Hint classes: computed

    Generated lines used: 0

    Verification run: 20261007T011557Z

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    About Contexto

    How Contexto works

    Contexto is a daily word game where you guess the secret word and, instead of letter clues, you get a rank: how semantically close your guess is to the answer. A rank of 1 means you found it; a rank of 5,000 means your word is barely related. The game uses an AI language model to measure how often words appear in similar contexts, so synonyms and closely related ideas score best.

    There are no letter or length hints — only meaning. That makes it a very different solve from Wordle: you are exploring a web of related concepts rather than narrowing down spelling.

    Strategy tips

    • Start broad: try common, general words (time, people, water, money) to map the territory.
    • Follow the gradient: when a guess ranks well, try its synonyms and related words to climb closer.
    • Switch senses: if you stall, jump to a totally different topic — you may be stuck in the wrong neighborhood.
    • Think category, not spelling: the answer is about meaning, so verbs, abstract nouns, and concepts are all fair game.

    When does Contexto reset?

    A new Contexto puzzle is released every day at midnight in your local time zone, and each puzzle has a game number that increases by one per day. Miss a day? Past answers stay searchable — browse our Contexto archive to look any of them up.

    More NYT puzzle help