ETHIC
Yes, ETHIC was the Wordle answer on May 10, 2023 (Wordle #690).
As an opener, it rules out about 92.3% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈɛθ.ɪk/
- Adjective
-
Moral, relating to morals.
- Noun
-
A set of principles of right and wrong behaviour guiding, or representative of, a specific culture, society, group, or individual.
“The Protestant work ethic.”
- Noun
-
The morality of an action.
Alternative forms: ethick
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: May 10, 2023 (#690).
See the full page for that puzzle: May 10, 2023 (#690).
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 ETHIC performs as a guess
ETHIC 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 84.0% of games, misses completely in 16.0%, and leaves about 183 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,300 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.71 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 ETHIC 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 ETHIC 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 ETHIC in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
ETHIC can come back 78 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 ETHIC; 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 ETHIC
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to ETHIC.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing ETHIC:
Research on ETHIC
Game-tree analysis and word research for ETHIC, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with ETHIC, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses and ranks #8,860 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 ETHIC can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.71, at or below the proven-optimal 3.76, 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 EHTHIHK.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, ETHIC is a kind of principle or system.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- ETHIC sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 3 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.
In a sentence
You have a great work ethic.
Do you have a strong work ethic?
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.