MAJOR
Yes, MAJOR has been the Wordle answer on July 9, 2021 (Wordle #20) and October 9, 2026 (Wordle #1938).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈmeɪ.d͡ʒə(ɹ)/[ˈmeɪ̯d͡ʒə(ɹ)][ˈmɛjd͡ʒə(ɹ)]
- Adjective
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Greater in dignity, rank, importance, significance, or interest.
- Adjective
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Greater in number, quantity, or extent.
“the major part of the assembly”
- Noun
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A rank of officer in the army and the US air force, between captain and lieutenant colonel.
“He used to be a major in the army.”
- Noun
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A person of legal age.
Alternative forms: majour
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
* As an English surname of Norman origin, from the personal name Malgier, via Old French from the Germanic name *Madalgari. See Mauger.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it MAYJUR.
Related meanings
Synonyms better star leading senior starring stellar
Opposites MINOR junior
In a sentence
What did you major in?
This is a major problem.
Use MAJOR in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 91.1% 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 2 timesPast Wordle answer: July 9, 2021 (#20); October 9, 2026 (#1938).
See the full page for each puzzle: July 9, 2021 (#20); October 9, 2026 (#1938).
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 →MAJOR in Connections
6 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . Showing the 5 most recent. A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.
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· Puzzle #937
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MAJOR appeared in ARMY RANKS (yellow group).
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· Puzzle #852
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MAJOR appeared in SIGNIFICANT (yellow group).
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· Puzzle #825
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MAJOR appeared in IMPORTANT (yellow group).
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· Puzzle #758
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MAJOR appeared in JOHNS (purple group).
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· Puzzle #381
Reveal this appearance's category
MAJOR appeared in ARMY RANKS (yellow group).
How MAJOR performs as a guess
MAJOR 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 79.2% of games, misses completely in 20.8%, and leaves about 213 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,261 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.77 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 MAJOR 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 MAJOR 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 MAJOR in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
MAJOR can come back 82 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 MAJOR; 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 MAJOR
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to MAJOR.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing MAJOR:
Research on MAJOR
Game-tree analysis and word research for MAJOR, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with MAJOR, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.80 guesses and ranks #10,546 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 MAJOR can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.77, at or below the proven-optimal 3.80, 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
- MAJOR sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 200 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 8, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 37 of 100. Raters found it difficult to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.0 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).