5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess F tier for first-turn info

APPLY

Yes, APPLY was the Wordle answer on December 12, 2022 (Wordle #541).

As an opener, it rules out about 86.0% of possible answers.

Open Solver with APPLY Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /əˈplaɪ/[əˈplaɪ][əˈplɑj]

Verb

To lay or place; to put (one thing to another)

“to apply cream to a rash”

Verb

To put to use; to use or employ for a particular purpose, or in a particular case

“to apply funds to the repayment of a debt”

Adjective

Alternative spelling of appley.

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Wordle status

A word can be a playable guess without being a possible answer.

Playable guess

Yes

Included in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.

Possible answer

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

Past Wordle answer

Used once

Past Wordle answer: December 12, 2022 (#541).

See the full page for that puzzle: December 12, 2022 (#541).

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

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How APPLY performs as a guess

APPLY is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,374 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 69.5% of games, misses completely in 30.5%, and leaves about 332 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #11,645 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.80 guesses in games solved within six turns.

Try your feedback pattern

Tap the tiles to match your feedback, then see the ranked follow-up guesses.

All gray? Tap a tile to cycle gray → yellow → green.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

A___Y A in the 1st position and Y in the 5th position A__L_ A in the 1st position and L in the 4th position _P__Y P in the 2nd position and Y in the 5th position

Explore lists that match the beginning, ending or letters in APPLY.

First-turn measures

All four describe APPLY used as an opening guess. Entropy is the same idea as “avg ruled out” on a log scale: a higher number means the guess splits the possible answers into more, smaller groups.

3.83 Entropy (bits)
332 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
86.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 16% of evaluated openers
2.12 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How APPLY performed in the previous complete opener benchmark, against its captured answer snapshot. These research figures are separate from today's solver recommendations. See the data page for the method.

3.80 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#11,645 Rank among openers
Opening with APPLY solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.80 average. It ranks #11,645 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
42
3 guesses
728
4 guesses
1,263
5 guesses
295
6 guesses
25
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.46 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

4/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
AL

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
70%
Green tile
29%
All gray
30%

Example solver route

R O A T E
N A S A L
A L B U M
A P P L Y

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches APPLY in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

APPLY can come back 72 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

725 answers
378 answers
195 answers
159 answers
148 answers
97 answers
81 answers
73 answers
59 answers
37 answers
37 answers
29 answers
29 answers
28 answers
25 answers
23 answers
23 answers
18 answers
18 answers
14 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers
7 answers
6 answers
6 answers

Letter-value totals

Base letter-value totals for APPLY; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.

Scrabble

A1P3P3L1Y4
Total: 12 points

Words With Friends

Total: 14 points

Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.

Try next

TRONE TRACE GOIER CARSE SIRED TRICE

Strategy after playing APPLY

What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to APPLY.

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing APPLY:

31% chance
Suggested:
TRONE
16% chance
Suggested:
TRACE
8% chance
Suggested:
GOIER

Follow-ups for common patterns

Ranked follow-up guesses for the 10 most common feedback patterns.

30.5% →
TRONE 6.21 bits
15.9% →
TRACE 5.63 bits
8.2% →
GOIER 4.99 bits
6.7% →
CARSE 4.77 bits
6.2% →
SIRED 4.55 bits
4.1% →
TRICE 5.32 bits
3.4% →
TRODE 5.03 bits
3.1% →
TRADE 4.02 bits
2.5% →
SUITE 4.60 bits
1.6% →
SOLED 3.38 bits

Research on APPLY

Game-tree analysis and word research for APPLY, with an explanation for each figure.

Optimal play

Opening with APPLY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.84 guesses and ranks #12,161 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.99 guesses at best and is rank #5,961 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.80, at or below the proven-optimal 3.84, because the two figures score different answer lists.

These figures come from exhaustive game-tree search and are exact for the NYT lists of July 2023 (3,158 answers). They do not use the site's working answer pool.

How it sounds

Two syllables, stress on the second syllable Say it UHPLY.

Rhymes with REPLY IMPLY THIGH DECRY RETRY

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, APPLY is a kind of move or touch.

Synonyms use give hold practice implement employ

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
APPLY sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 65 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A2); among the first words English learners study.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 9, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 27 of 100. Raters found it difficult to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.9 of 5).

In a sentence

I think you should apply.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
This doesn't apply to you.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).