CHARM
Yes, CHARM was the Wordle answer on September 2, 2022 (Wordle #440).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /tʃɑːm//t͡ʃɑɹm/
- Noun
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An object, act or words believed to have magic power (usually carries a positive connotation).
“a charm against evil”
- Noun
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The ability to persuade, delight or arouse admiration.
“He had great personal charm.”
- Verb
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To seduce, persuade or fascinate someone or something.
“He charmed her with his dashing tales of his days as a sailor.”
- Verb
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To use a magical charm upon; to subdue, control, or summon by incantation or supernatural influence; to ensorcel or exert a magical effect on.
“After winning three games while wearing the chain, Dan began to think it had been charmed.”
Alternative forms: charme, jarm
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
Synchronically a variant of chirm, but reflects Middle English charme (or unattested *charm), from Old English ċearm (“cry, alarm”), from Proto-West Germanic *karm, masculine variant of *karmi f, from Proto-Germanic *karmiz, *karm(j)az (“cry, lament, calling sound”). Near-doublet of chirm, which is from the feminine counterpart.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
One syllable Say it CHAHRM.
Related meanings
Synonyms CATCH influence appeal capture entrance SPELL
In a sentence
The dog is a charm.
It's part of her charm.
Use CHARM in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 91.6% 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: September 2, 2022 (#440).
See the full page for that puzzle: September 2, 2022 (#440).
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 →CHARM in Connections
11 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . Showing the 5 most recent. A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.
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· Puzzle #935
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CHARM appeared in BIT OF MAGIC (yellow group).
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· Puzzle #906
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CHARM appeared in KINDS OF JEWELRY (yellow group).
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· Puzzle #872
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CHARM appeared in COLLECTIVE NOUNS FOR BIRDS (blue group).
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· Puzzle #794
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CHARM appeared in CAPTIVATE (yellow group).
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· Puzzle #723
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CHARM appeared in KINDS OF BRACELETS (blue group).
How CHARM performs as a guess
CHARM 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 78.6% of games, misses completely in 21.4%, and leaves about 201 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,393 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.63 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 CHARM 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 CHARM 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 CHARM in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
CHARM can come back 112 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 CHARM; 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 CHARM
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to CHARM.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing CHARM:
Research on CHARM
Game-tree analysis and word research for CHARM, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with CHARM, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #4,371 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.80 guesses at best and is rank #1,448 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.63, at or below the proven-optimal 3.69, 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
- CHARM sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 13 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
- Learner level
- Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B1); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 8, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 53 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
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).