BULLY
Yes, BULLY was the Wordle answer on August 8, 2023 (Wordle #780).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈbʊli//ˈbɵlɪj//ˈbʉle/
- Noun
-
A person who is intentionally physically or emotionally cruel to others, especially to those whom they perceive as being vulnerable or of less power or privilege.
“A playground bully pushed a girl off the swing.”
- Noun
-
A noisy, blustering, tyrannical person, more insolent than courageous; one who is threatening and quarrelsome.
- Verb
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To intimidate (someone) as a bully.
“You shouldn't bully people for being weak.”
- Verb
-
To act aggressively towards.
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From 1530, as a term of endearment, probably a diminutive ( + -y) of Dutch boel (“lover; brother”), from Middle Dutch boel, boele (“brother; lover”), from Old Dutch *buolo, from Proto-Germanic *bōlô (compare Middle Low German bôle (“brother”), Middle High German buole (“brother; close relative; close relation”) (whence German Buhle (“lover”)), Old English Bōla, Bōlla (personal name), diminutive of expressive *bō- (“brother, father”). Compare also Latvian bālinš (“brother”). More at boy.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it BUULEE.
Related meanings
Synonyms GREAT old TOUGH keen neat cracking
Opposites bad
In a sentence
Don't be a bully with me.
That guy is a bully.
Use BULLY in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 79.9% 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: August 8, 2023 (#780).
See the full page for that puzzle: August 8, 2023 (#780).
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 →BULLY in Connections
2 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.
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· Puzzle #678
Reveal this appearance's category
BULLY appeared in DOG BREEDS, INFORMALLY (blue group).
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· Puzzle #353
Reveal this appearance's category
BULLY appeared in INTIMIDATE (blue group).
How BULLY performs as a guess
BULLY 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 58.6% of games, misses completely in 41.4%, and leaves about 479 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,171 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.85 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 BULLY 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 BULLY 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 BULLY in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
BULLY can come back 77 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 BULLY; 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 BULLY
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to BULLY.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing BULLY:
Research on BULLY
Game-tree analysis and word research for BULLY, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with BULLY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.86 guesses and ranks #13,006 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 BULLY can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.85, at or below the proven-optimal 3.86, 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
- BULLY sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 7 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
- Learner level
- Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 75 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.8 of 5).
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).