FLIRT
Yes, FLIRT was the Wordle answer on January 28, 2023 (Wordle #588).
As an opener, it rules out about 93.5% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /flɜːt//flɚt//flɪɾt/
- Noun
-
A sudden jerk; a quick throw or cast; a darting motion
- Noun
-
Someone who flirts a lot or enjoys flirting; a flirtatious person.
- Verb
-
To throw (something) with a jerk or sudden movement; to fling.
“They flirt water in each other's faces.”
- Verb
-
To dart about; to move with quick, jerky motions.
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: January 28, 2023 (#588).
See the full page for that puzzle: January 28, 2023 (#588).
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 FLIRT performs as a guess
FLIRT 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 83.8% of games, misses completely in 16.2%, and leaves about 154 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #967 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.60 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 FLIRT 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 FLIRT 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 FLIRT in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
FLIRT can come back 123 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 FLIRT; 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 FLIRT
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to FLIRT.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing FLIRT:
Research on FLIRT
Game-tree analysis and word research for FLIRT, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with FLIRT, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #2,404 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.77 guesses at best and is rank #697 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.60, at or below the proven-optimal 3.66, 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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, FLIRT is a kind of woman or play.
Synonyms play romance toy butterfly flirting TEASE
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- FLIRT 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.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 10, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 62 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
In a sentence
She doesn't like to flirt.
It's fun to flirt with him.
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); Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0).