FROWN
Yes, FROWN was the Wordle answer on October 25, 2024 (Wordle #1224).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈfɹaʊ̯n//ˈfɹæʊ̯n//ˈfɹaːn/
- Noun
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A wrinkling of the forehead with the eyebrows brought together, typically indicating displeasure, severity, or concentration.
- Noun
-
A downturn of the corners of the mouth, typically expressing sadness.
- Verb
-
To have a frown on one's face.
“She frowned when I told her the news.”
- Verb
-
To manifest displeasure or disapprobation; to look with disfavour or threateningly.
“Noisy gossip in the library is frowned upon.”
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From Middle English frounen (“to frown as an expression of disapproval, displeasure, shame, fear, or jealousy”), from Old French froignier, froingnier, frognier (“to wrinkle the mouth or forehead, frown, scowl”), of uncertain and disputed origin.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
One syllable Say it FROWN.
Rhymes with BROWN CROWN CLOWN DROWN
Related meanings
Synonyms LOWER
In a sentence
He looked at me with a frown.
Tom looked at Mary with a frown.
Use FROWN in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 88.8% 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: October 25, 2024 (#1224).
See the full page for that puzzle: October 25, 2024 (#1224).
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 →FROWN in Connections
1 recorded appearance in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.
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· Puzzle #256
Reveal this appearance's category
FROWN appeared in COLORS WITH THEIR FIRST LETTERS CHANGED (purple group).
How FROWN performs as a guess
FROWN 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 72.8% of games, misses completely in 27.2%, and leaves about 268 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,665 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.68 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 FROWN 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 FROWN 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 FROWN in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
FROWN can come back 85 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 FROWN; 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 FROWN
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to FROWN.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing FROWN:
Research on FROWN
Game-tree analysis and word research for FROWN, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with FROWN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses and ranks #8,454 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.86 guesses at best and is rank #3,292 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.68, 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.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- FROWN sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 2 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 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 80 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.6 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); Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).