CLOWN
Yes, CLOWN was the Wordle answer on August 25, 2022 (Wordle #432).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈklaʊ̯n//ˈklæʊ̯n//ˈklaːn/
- Noun
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A slapstick performance artist often associated with a circus and usually characterized by bright, oversized clothing, a red nose, face paint, and a brightly colored wig.
- Noun
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A person who acts in a silly fashion.
“He was regarded as the clown of the school, always playing pranks.”
- Verb
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To act in a silly or playful fashion.
- Verb
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To ridicule, make fun of.
Alternative forms: clowne, cloyne
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From earlier clowne, cloyne (“man of rustic or coarse manners, boor, peasant”); likely of North Germanic origin, akin to Icelandic klunni (“clumsy fellow, klutz”), Swedish kluns (“clumsy fellow”), all from Middle Low German klunz, from klunt (“pile, lump, something thick”); according to Pokorny, this could be related to a group of Germanic derivatives of Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up; amass”), such as Proto-West Germanic *klott (“lump”), Proto-Germanic *klūtaz (“clod, lump”), *kultaz (“…
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
One syllable Say it KLOWN.
Rhymes with BROWN CROWN DROWN FROWN
In a sentence
I know I'm a clown.
I used to work as a clown.
Use CLOWN in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 90.1% 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 25, 2022 (#432).
See the full page for that puzzle: August 25, 2022 (#432).
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 →CLOWN in Connections
7 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 #891
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CLOWN appeared in FUNNY PERSON (yellow group).
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· Puzzle #847
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CLOWN appeared in ___ CAR (purple group).
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· Puzzle #462
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CLOWN appeared in DOOFUS (blue group).
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· Puzzle #307
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CLOWN appeared in SEEN AT THE CIRCUS (yellow group).
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· Puzzle #305
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CLOWN appeared in FAST FOOD MASCOTS (purple group).
How CLOWN performs as a guess
CLOWN 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 74.2% of games, misses completely in 25.8%, and leaves about 235 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,879 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.65 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 CLOWN 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 CLOWN 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 CLOWN in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
CLOWN can come back 86 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 CLOWN; 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 CLOWN
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to CLOWN.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing CLOWN:
Research on CLOWN
Game-tree analysis and word research for CLOWN, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with CLOWN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #4,726 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 #1,399 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, at or below the proven-optimal 3.70, 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
- CLOWN sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 9 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
- Learner level
- Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A2); among the first words English learners study.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 4, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 95 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.0 of 5).
Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); 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).