ENEMY
ENEMY is on the solver's possible-answer list but has not appeared as a Wordle answer yet.
As an opener, it rules out about 88.0% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈɛnəmi//ˈenəmi//ˈɛnəme/
- Noun
-
Someone who is hostile to, feels hatred towards, opposes the interests of, or intends injury to someone else.
“under enemy duress”
- Noun
-
A hostile force or nation; a fighting member of such a force or nation.
“Rally together against a common enemy.”
- Verb
-
To make an enemy of.
Alternative forms: enemie
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
Not used yetNo past answer date found.
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 ENEMY performs as a guess
ENEMY 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 76.1% of games, misses completely in 23.9%, and leaves about 285 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,149 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.81 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 ENEMY 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 ENEMY 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 ENEMY in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
ENEMY can come back 71 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 ENEMY; 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 ENEMY
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to ENEMY.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing ENEMY:
Research on ENEMY
Game-tree analysis and word research for ENEMY, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with ENEMY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.84 guesses and ranks #12,198 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 4.01 guesses at best and is rank #6,366 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.81, at or below the proven-optimal 3.84, 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
Three syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it EHNUHMEE.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, ENEMY is a kind of force or opponent.
Synonyms opposition foe
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- ENEMY sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 50 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.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.8 of 5).
In a sentence
But who is the enemy?
He is not my enemy.
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).