DECAY
Yes, DECAY was the Wordle answer on March 22, 2024 (Wordle #1007).
As an opener, it rules out about 93.4% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /dɪˈkeɪ//diˈkeɪ/
- Noun
-
Rot; any processes or result of organic matter being gradually decomposed, especially by microbial action.
“tooth decay/dental decay—wood-decay fungi—bacterial decay—photochemical decay”
- Noun
-
Deterioration of condition; loss of status, quality, strength, or fortune.
“civic and moral decay—systemic decay—fall into decay—urban decay—arrested decay—memory decay”
- Verb
-
To deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality.
“The pair loved to take pictures in the decaying hospital on forty-third street.”
- Verb
-
To rot, to go bad.
“The cat's body decayed rapidly.”
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: March 22, 2024 (#1007).
See the full page for that puzzle: March 22, 2024 (#1007).
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 DECAY performs as a guess
DECAY 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 86.6% of games, misses completely in 13.4%, and leaves about 157 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,116 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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 DECAY 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 DECAY 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 DECAY in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
DECAY can come back 102 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 DECAY; 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 DECAY
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to DECAY.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing DECAY:
Research on DECAY
Game-tree analysis and word research for DECAY, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with DECAY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #4,995 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 DECAY can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, 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.
How it sounds
Two syllables, stress on the second syllable Say it DIHKAY.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, DECAY is a kind of action or decrease.
Synonyms decline crumble decomposition disintegration
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- DECAY 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 10, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 66 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
There is nothing that does not decay.
After his death he started to decay.
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).