MAVEN
Yes, MAVEN was the Wordle answer on July 2, 2026 (Wordle #1839).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈmeɪvn̩//ˈmeɪv(ə)n/
- Noun
-
An expert in a given field; also, a person who is interested in and knowledgeable about a particular activity or thing; an aficionado.
Alternative forms: mavin, mayven, mayvin
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From Yiddish מבֿין (meyvn, “connoisseur, expert, know-it-all”), from Hebrew מֵבִין (mevín, “one who understands, connoisseur, expert”), from הֵבִין (hevín, “to understand”). The word is said to have been popularized by its use in an advertising campaign for Vita Herring launched in the United States in 1964, which had a character called the “beloved [herring] maven” promoting the product.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it MAYVUHN.
Related meanings
Synonyms star champion genius ace wizard sensation
In a sentence
She is a fashion maven with a lot of influence.
Tom is an Excel maven.
Use MAVEN in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 92.6% 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: July 2, 2026 (#1839).
See the full page for that puzzle: July 2, 2026 (#1839).
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 MAVEN performs as a guess
MAVEN 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 82.0% of games, misses completely in 18.0%, and leaves about 177 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,559 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.73 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 MAVEN 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 MAVEN 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 MAVEN in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
MAVEN can come back 96 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 MAVEN; 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 MAVEN
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to MAVEN.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing MAVEN:
Research on MAVEN
Game-tree analysis and word research for MAVEN, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with MAVEN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.73 guesses and ranks #6,660 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 MAVEN can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.73, at or below the proven-optimal 3.73, 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
- MAVEN sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
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).