ASHEN
Yes, ASHEN was the Wordle answer on April 15, 2025 (Wordle #1396).
As an opener, it rules out about 95.2% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈæʃ.ən/[ˈæʃ.ən] ~ [ˈæʃ.n̩]
- Adjective
-
Made from the wood of the ash-tree.
“An ashen bow and quiver of arrows beside.”
- Adjective
-
Of or resembling ashes.
“A fine, ashen dust hung in the air.”
- Verb
-
To turn into ash; make or become ashy
- Verb
-
To make or become pale
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
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Used oncePast Wordle answer: April 15, 2025 (#1396).
See the full page for that puzzle: April 15, 2025 (#1396).
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →How ASHEN performs as a guess
ASHEN 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 88.8% of games, misses completely in 11.2%, and leaves about 114 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,114 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe ASHEN 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How ASHEN 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches ASHEN in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
ASHEN can come back 93 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for ASHEN; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing ASHEN
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to ASHEN.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing ASHEN:
Research on ASHEN
Game-tree analysis and word research for ASHEN, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with ASHEN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.68 guesses and ranks #3,500 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
No guaranteed hard-mode solve In hard mode, no strategy that opens with ASHEN can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.69; proven optimal play reaches 3.68. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.
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 first syllable Say it ASHUHN.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- ASHEN sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.0 of 5).
In a sentence
We were worried about her ashen appearance.
I was taken aback by his ashen complexion.
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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).