FLAME
Yes, FLAME was the Wordle answer on March 4, 2024 (Wordle #989).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /fleɪm/
- Noun
-
The visible part of fire; a stream of burning vapour or gas, emitting light and heat.
- Noun
-
A romantic partner or lover in a usually short-lived but passionate affair.
- Adjective
-
Of a brilliant reddish orange-gold colour, like that of a flame.
- Verb
-
To produce flames; to burn with a flame or blaze.
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From Middle English flawme, blend of Old French flame and flambe, flamble, the first from Latin flamma, the second from Latin flammula, diminutive of flamma, both from pre-Latin *fladma; Proto-Italic *flagmā, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to shimmer, gleam, shine”). Displaced native Old English līeġ.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
One syllable Say it FLAYM.
Rhymes with CLAIM BLAME FRAME SHAME BRAME
Related meanings
Synonyms fire FLARE flaming
In a sentence
The flame is going out.
Turn the flame down low.
Use FLAME in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 93.6% 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: March 4, 2024 (#989).
See the full page for that puzzle: March 4, 2024 (#989).
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
Wordle Observatory · optional
Played this Wordle?
Add your result to the public totals · about 20 seconds
Wordle Observatory · optional
Played this Wordle?
Add your result to the public totals · about 20 seconds
Add your result and a quick difficulty rating to help explain how this puzzle played.
See the public dataThank you. Your result now helps describe this puzzle.
See what the public sample says →FLAME in Connections
3 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.
-
· Puzzle #843
Reveal this appearance's category
FLAME appeared in CRITICIZE (green group).
-
· Puzzle #812
Reveal this appearance's category
FLAME appeared in CRITICIZE HARSHLY (yellow group).
-
· Puzzle #404
Reveal this appearance's category
FLAME appeared in ROMANTIC PARTNER (yellow group).
How FLAME performs as a guess
FLAME 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 83.4% of games, misses completely in 16.6%, and leaves about 152 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #4,516 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.66 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 FLAME 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 FLAME 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 FLAME in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
FLAME can come back 107 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 FLAME; 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 FLAME
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to FLAME.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing FLAME:
Research on FLAME
Game-tree analysis and word research for FLAME, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with FLAME, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #4,078 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 3.66, 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.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- FLAME sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 12 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 B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.7 of 5).
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).