BEGIN
Yes, BEGIN was the Wordle answer on November 7, 2022 (Wordle #506).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /bɪˈɡɪn//bəˈɡɪn//biˈɡɪn/
- Verb
-
To start, to initiate or take the first step into something.
“I began playing the piano at the age of five.”
- Verb
-
To come into existence.
- Noun
-
Beginning; start.
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From Middle English beginnen, from Old English beginnan (“to begin”), from Proto-West Germanic *biginnan, from Proto-Germanic *biginnaną (“to begin”), from be- + base verb *ginnaną also found in Old English onginnan.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
Two syllables, stress on the second syllable Say it BIHGIHN.
Related meanings
Synonyms get START commence
Opposites end
In a sentence
Now is the time to begin.
I know how to begin.
Use BEGIN in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 91.0% of possible answers.
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: November 7, 2022 (#506).
See the full page for that puzzle: November 7, 2022 (#506).
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 →BEGIN in Connections
1 recorded appearance in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.
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· Puzzle #1113
Reveal this appearance's category
BEGIN appeared in SIGNALS TO COMMENCE (green group).
How BEGIN performs as a guess
BEGIN is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,384 when every answer is treated as equally likely.
Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 78.7% of games, misses completely in 21.3%, and leaves about 214 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,155 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 BEGIN 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 BEGIN 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 BEGIN in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
BEGIN can come back 102 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 BEGIN; 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 BEGIN
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to BEGIN.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing BEGIN:
Research on BEGIN
Game-tree analysis and word research for BEGIN, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with BEGIN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,748 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.85 guesses at best and is rank #2,783 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, at or below the proven-optimal 3.71, 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.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- BEGIN sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 69 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 A1); among the first words English learners study.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 5, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 25 of 100. Raters found it difficult to picture.
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).