LEAST
Yes, LEAST was the Wordle answer on September 1, 2025 (Wordle #1535).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /liːst//list/
- Adjective
-
Chiefly preceded by the: superlative form of little: most little.
“least common multiple”
- Determiner
-
Chiefly preceded by the: superlative form of little: most little.
“He earns the least money in his family.”
- Adverb
-
In a degree below all others; in the lowest or smallest degree.
“My best routine was the one I had practised the least.”
- Adverb
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Used to form superlatives of adjectives, especially those that do not form the superlative by adding -est.
“It was the least surprising thing.”
Alternative forms: 'least
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
The adjective, determiner, and noun are derived from Middle English leste, lest, last (“(adjective) smallest, least; (noun) smallest thing, etc.; person or thing least in importance; etc.”), from Old English lǣst, a contraction of læsast, læsest (“least”) (also lærest in only one source), from Proto-Germanic *laisistaz (“smallest, least”), from *laisiz (“less”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂is- or *leh₃is-; whence modern English less) + *-istaz (“suffix forming superlative forms of som…
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
One syllable Say it LEEST.
Related meanings
Opposites most
In a sentence
That's the least of it.
At least, I was there.
Use LEAST in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 96.6% 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: September 1, 2025 (#1535).
See the full page for that puzzle: September 1, 2025 (#1535).
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 →LEAST 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 #44
Reveal this appearance's category
LEAST appeared in ANAGRAMS (purple group).
How LEAST performs as a guess
LEAST 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 90.4% of games, misses completely in 9.6%, and leaves about 81 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #51 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.55 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 LEAST 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 LEAST 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 LEAST in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
LEAST can come back 141 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 LEAST; 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 LEAST
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to LEAST.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing LEAST:
Research on LEAST
Game-tree analysis and word research for LEAST, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with LEAST, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.58 guesses and ranks #16 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.69 guesses at best and is rank #3 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.55, at or below the proven-optimal 3.58, 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
- LEAST sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 275 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 A2); among the first words English learners study.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 23 of 100. Raters found it difficult to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.3 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; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).