Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess C tier for first-turn info

DOING

Yes, DOING was the Wordle answer on January 14, 2024 (Wordle #939).

As an opener, it rules out about 89.4% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈduːɪŋ//ˈdiːɪn//dɔɪŋ/

Verb

present participle and gerund of do

Noun

A deed or action, especially when somebody is held responsible for it.

“Draining that swamp is going to take some doing!”

Interjection

The sound made by an elastic object when struck by or striking a hard object.

Alternative forms: dein, deein, doïng

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

Yes

Included in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.

Possible answer

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

Past Wordle answer

Used once

Past Wordle answer: January 14, 2024 (#939).

See the full page for that puzzle: January 14, 2024 (#939).

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

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How DOING performs as a guess

DOING 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 71.6% of games, misses completely in 28.4%, and leaves about 251 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,278 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.

All gray? Tap a tile to cycle gray → yellow → green.

First-turn measures

All four describe DOING 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.

4.51 Entropy (bits)
251 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
89.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 53% of evaluated openers
1.43 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How DOING 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.

3.64 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#3,278 Rank among openers
Opening with DOING left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.64 average. It ranks #3,278 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
61
3 guesses
926
4 guesses
1,172
5 guesses
176
6 guesses
16
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.46 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
INO

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
72%
Green tile
31%
All gray
28%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S C O L D
D O D G Y
D O I N G

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches DOING in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

DOING can come back 101 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

674 answers
187 answers
153 answers
150 answers
127 answers
106 answers
82 answers
71 answers
70 answers
56 answers
53 answers
40 answers
40 answers
26 answers
26 answers
26 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
21 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers
14 answers
12 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

Base letter-value totals for DOING; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.

Scrabble

D2O1I1N1G2
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.

Strategy after playing DOING

What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to DOING.

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing DOING:

28% chance
Suggested:
SLATE
8% chance
Suggested:
CARTE
6% chance
Suggested:
SALET

Follow-ups for common patterns

Ranked follow-up guesses for the 10 most common feedback patterns.

28.4%
SLATE 6.44 bits
7.9%
CARTE 5.29 bits
6.4%
SALET 5.22 bits
6.3%
CARTE 4.77 bits
5.3%
SLATE 5.05 bits
4.5%
SANER 5.09 bits
3.5%
GLARE 5.14 bits
3.0%
CATER 4.55 bits
2.9%
LEARE 4.94 bits
2.4%
LEAST 4.77 bits

Research on DOING

Game-tree analysis and word research for DOING, with an explanation for each figure.

Optimal play

Opening with DOING, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #4,001 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 DOING can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, 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.

How it sounds

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it DOOIHNG.

Rhymes with SUING CUING

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, DOING is a kind of doctorate or party.

Synonyms make come set CAUSE act answer

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
DOING sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 398 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.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.4 of 5).

In a sentence

I was just doing that.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
And how are you doing?
© tatoeba.org contributor frpzzd (CC BY 2.0 FR)

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; Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).