CLIMB
Yes, CLIMB was the Wordle answer on April 4, 2024 (Wordle #1020).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈklaɪ̯m/[ˈkʰl̥aɪ̯m]
- Verb
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To traverse a slope or contour, either upwards (ascending) or downwards (descending).
- Verb
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(literally or figuratively): To ascend; rise; to go up.
- Noun
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An act of climbing.
- Noun
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The act of getting to somewhere more elevated.
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From Middle English climben, clymben, from Old English climban (“to climb”), from Proto-West Germanic *klimban, from Proto-Germanic *klimbaną (“to climb, go up by clinging”), believed to be a nasalised variant of Proto-Germanic *klibaną, *klibāną (“to stick, cleave”), from Proto-Indo-European *gley- (“to stick”). Cognate with West Frisian klimme (“to climb”), Dutch klimmen (“to climb”), German klimmen (“to climb”), Old Norse klembra (“to squeeze”), Icelandic klifra (“to climb”).
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
One syllable Say it KLYM.
Rhymes with CRIME PRIME RHYME SLIME CHIME
Related meanings
Synonyms rise RAISE MOUNT upgrade climbing wax
In a sentence
The climb was worth it.
How did they climb down?
Use CLIMB in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 88.3% 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: April 4, 2024 (#1020).
See the full page for that puzzle: April 4, 2024 (#1020).
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 →CLIMB 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 #933
Reveal this appearance's category
CLIMB appeared in PARTS OF A FLIGHT (blue group).
How CLIMB performs as a guess
CLIMB 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 70.3% of games, misses completely in 29.7%, and leaves about 279 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,437 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.64 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 CLIMB 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 CLIMB 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 CLIMB in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
CLIMB can come back 83 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 CLIMB; 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 CLIMB
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to CLIMB.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing CLIMB:
Research on CLIMB
Game-tree analysis and word research for CLIMB, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with CLIMB, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,426 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 #1,435 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, 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
- CLIMB sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 17 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: 74 of 100. Raters found it easy 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).