CATCH
Yes, CATCH was the Wordle answer on October 15, 2022 (Wordle #483).
As an opener, it rules out about 87.4% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /kæt͡ʃ//kɛt͡ʃ//kɑt͡ʃ/
- Noun
-
The act of seizing or capturing.
“The catch of the perpetrator was the product of a year of police work.”
- Noun
-
The act of catching an object in motion, especially a ball.
“The player made an impressive catch.”
- Verb
-
To capture, overtake.
“I hope I catch a fish.”
- Verb
-
To seize hold of.
“I have to stop for a moment and catch my breath”
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: October 15, 2022 (#483).
See the full page for that puzzle: October 15, 2022 (#483).
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 CATCH performs as a guess
CATCH 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 70.3% of games, misses completely in 29.7%, and leaves about 300 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,244 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.77 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 CATCH 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 CATCH 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 CATCH in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
CATCH can come back 79 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 CATCH; 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 CATCH
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to CATCH.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing CATCH:
Research on CATCH
Game-tree analysis and word research for CATCH, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with CATCH, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.80 guesses and ranks #10,630 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 CATCH can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.77, at or below the proven-optimal 3.80, 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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, CATCH is a kind of drawback or amount.
Synonyms get see make stop WATCH view
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- CATCH sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 74 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 7, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 55 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.1 of 5).
In a sentence
Catch me if you can.
There has to be a catch.
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).