5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess F tier opener

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).

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

Wordle Observatory

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About the project

Add an anonymous result and difficulty rating to the public, aggregate research dataset.

We send only this answer word for puzzle verification, the puzzle number, result, difficulty vote, Hard Mode flag, timezone and a random one-puzzle receipt token. The Observatory stores no answer word, grid, guesses, account, email, IP-derived ID or reusable player identifier. The puzzle-specific receipt prevents duplicate submissions and permits withdrawal; anyone with that token can withdraw, so keep browser-data exports private. See the privacy details.

How APPLY performs as a guess

APPLY is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,358 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 69.4% of games, misses completely in 30.6%, and leaves about 330 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete v5 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.

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

Try next

TRONE TRACE GOIER CARSE SIRED TRICE
Words starting with A Words ending with Y

First-turn measures

3.82 Entropy (bits)
330 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
86.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 15% of evaluated openers
2.13 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opener: v5 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
100.0% Win rate
0.72 Volatility
#11,645 v5 opener rank
In the complete v5 snapshot, APPLY 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 (3.45 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

4/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
AL

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
69%
Green tile
29%
All gray
31%

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

71 possible patterns. Top outcomes:

721
377
192
159
146
97
80
73
58
37
37
29
28
28
24
23
23
18
18
14
12
12
11
10
10
9
9
7
6
6

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.

30.6% →
TRONE 6.21 bits
16.0% →
TRACE 5.63 bits
8.1% →
GOIER 5.00 bits
6.7% →
CARSE 4.77 bits
6.2% →
SIRED 4.56 bits
4.1% →
TRICE 5.32 bits
3.4% →
TRODE 5.03 bits
3.1% →
TRADE 4.02 bits
2.5% →
SUITE 4.61 bits
1.6% →
SOLED 3.38 bits

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.