All 9 clues solved, with letter counts and a per-clue breakdown. Fresh every morning, verified against the live game.
The Word Craze Daily Theme for May 16, 2021 has 9 clues covering 51 letter tiles, with answers running from 4 to 7 letters. The shortest answers are PERU and REAL at 4 letters each, while the longest are RABBITS and FINLAND and STILLER at 7 letters. Jump straight to the full clue table if you need a specific answer, or browse the letter breakdown for the vowel and consonant split on every word.
Across today's 9 clues the average answer is 5.7 letters long and 5 (56%) reuse at least one letter internally. R and P each open 2 answers — the most common starting letters today. Start with the shortest clues — they unlock crossings for the longer ones. Compare with today's Trivia Daily and Daily Mini, or return to the Word Craze hub for level and pack guides.
Yesterday's answers: May 15, 2021. If your app shows a different answer after a patch, ensure your app is up to date — corrections appear here after the next review.
May 16, 2021 · 9 clues
| # | Clue | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Okunoshima is the Japanese island that is largely populated by this animal | RABBITS7 letters |
| 2 | Helsinki is the capital of this Nordic country | FINLAND7 letters |
| 3 | Machu Picchu is found in this South American country | PERU4 letters |
| 4 | "Nine Men's ______", also called "Cowboy Checkers", is thought to date back to the Roman Empire | MORRIS6 letters |
| 5 | "American ______" is a 1930 painting by Grant Wood depicting a farmer and his daughter | GOTHIC6 letters |
| 6 | In chess, each side has eight of these | PAWNS5 letters |
| 7 | Buddy Kane is known as the "____ Estate King" in "American Beauty" | REAL4 letters |
| 8 | _____ DeGeneres is the TV personality whose cover on Time Magazine had the headline "Yep, I'm Gay" | ELLEN5 letters |
| 9 | Ben _______ is the star of "Zoolander", "Tropic Thunder", and "Meet the Parents" | STILLER7 letters |
Letter patterns and solving metrics for each answer. See also the full clue table above.
Okunoshima is the Japanese island that is largely populated by this animal
Helsinki is the capital of this Nordic country
Machu Picchu is found in this South American country
"Nine Men's ______", also called "Cowboy Checkers", is thought to date back to the Roman Empire
"American ______" is a 1930 painting by Grant Wood depicting a farmer and his daughter
In chess, each side has eight of these
Buddy Kane is known as the "____ Estate King" in "American Beauty"
_____ DeGeneres is the TV personality whose cover on Time Magazine had the headline "Yep, I'm Gay"
Ben _______ is the star of "Zoolander", "Tropic Thunder", and "Meet the Parents"
Five steps that open the full crossword. More tips in the Word Craze hub.
Short answers have fewer crossing tiles, so solving them first seeds the longer answers for free. Scan the whole board and pick out every clue whose answer runs three or four letters - those are your quickest wins.
A clue that ends in "?" is hinting at a pun, double meaning, or lateral connection rather than a straight definition. Read it again as wordplay and the answer usually surfaces fast.
Each answer slot shows how many letters the answer has. Before typing, count the tiles and match them to your candidate word - one letter too long or short means wrong regardless of how good it looks.
Many Daily Theme answers are compound words. If the picture clue shows two distinct objects, name each one and fuse them. Splitting at the natural seam often bypasses the need to know the exact word upfront.
The picture clue and text clue together define the answer but are not redundant - each half adds information the other omits. Read the text, then examine the image for details the text left unnamed.
Five tactics that work on every dated Daily Theme — apply them today and carry them through the rest of the week.
Start with the longest answer on this board. Tap the longest word in the at-a-glance panel above and solve it first. Every crossing letter it places narrows the shorter answers that share a tile with it — on a typical Daily Theme board, one well-placed long answer can cascade three or four shorter entries to a single candidate.
Read the text clue and the image simultaneously. Each clue uses both a written description and a picture. The picture names the subject; the text tells you which property or aspect of that subject the answer covers. Reading only one of them loses half the information in the clue and roughly doubles the chance of guessing wrong.
Count the tile slots on every row before typing. The breakdown section above lists exact tile counts per answer. Cross-check any candidate against the slot length before committing — a five-letter guess in a six-letter slot is always wrong no matter how logical the word feels.
Treat a question-mark clue as a wordplay signal. Clues ending in "?" use a pun, double meaning, or lateral angle rather than a direct definition. Re-read them as playful hints, not factual descriptions. That reframe usually surfaces the answer within one or two re-reads.
Compare with the Trivia Daily and Daily Mini for today. Betta Games sometimes uses related vocabulary across all three daily formats on the same calendar date. If a clue here involves a topic that stumps you, checking today's Trivia Daily or Daily Mini often surfaces the same word in a context that makes the Daily Theme answer obvious.
The Word Craze Daily Theme is a daily picture-clue crossword released every morning by Betta Games. It is distinct from the Daily Mini and the Trivia Daily: the Theme is the full-size grid, solved and dated here every day. Every answer above is verified against the live game before it is published.
Return to the Word Craze section hub for level guides, pack answers, Endless Challenge ranges, and Hard Mode packs. This is an independent fan resource, not affiliated with Betta Games.
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Every answer on this page is read from the game's own puzzle data rather than retyped from another site, and is checked against what the board actually provides — so nothing listed can use a letter the level does not give you. The counts shown are computed from the stored data, not typed in by hand.
Reviewed by Priya Raghunathan, Word Games Editor at Puzzle Solved. The full checking routine is in the methodology, and the standards every page is held to are in the editorial policy.
Last checked — Sep 8, 2026