GUESS
Yes, GUESS was the Wordle answer on December 11, 2025 (Wordle #1636).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ɡɛs/
- Verb
-
To reach a partly (or totally) unconfirmed conclusion; to engage in conjecture; to speculate.
“We can only guess at what was going through her mind.”
- Verb
-
To solve by a correct conjecture; to conjecture rightly.
“He who guesses the riddle shall have the ring.”
- Noun
-
A prediction about the outcome of something, typically made without factual evidence or support.
“If you don't know the answer, take a guess.”
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From Middle English gessen (verb) and Middle English gesse (noun), probably of North Germanic origin, from Old Danish getse, gitse, getsa (“to guess”), from Old Norse *getsa, *gitsa, from Proto-Germanic *gitisōną (“to guess”), from Proto-Germanic *getaną (“to get”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to take, seize”).
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
One syllable Say it GEHS.
Rhymes with PRESS DRESS BLESS CHESS CRESS
Related meanings
Synonyms THINK shot JUDGE imagine suppose pretend
In a sentence
It was just a guess.
I want you to guess.
Use GUESS in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 87.6% 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: December 11, 2025 (#1636).
See the full page for that puzzle: December 11, 2025 (#1636).
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 →GUESS in Connections
2 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.
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· Puzzle #781
Reveal this appearance's category
GUESS appeared in SECOND ___ (green group).
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· Puzzle #282
Reveal this appearance's category
GUESS appeared in SECOND ___ (purple group).
How GUESS performs as a guess
GUESS 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 75.5% of games, misses completely in 24.5%, and leaves about 295 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,561 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.83 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 GUESS 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 GUESS 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 GUESS in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
GUESS can come back 72 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 GUESS; 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 GUESS
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to GUESS.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing GUESS:
Research on GUESS
Game-tree analysis and word research for GUESS, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with GUESS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.86 guesses and ranks #13,069 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 GUESS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.83, at or below the proven-optimal 3.86, 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
- GUESS sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 148 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
- Learner level
- Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A1); among the first words English learners study.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sound (2.1 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).