MAXIM
Yes, MAXIM was the Wordle answer on August 8, 2021 (Wordle #50).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈmæk.sɪm//ˈmæk.səm/
- Noun
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A precept; a succinct statement or observation of a rule of conduct or moral teaching.
- Noun
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Alternative letter-case form of Maxim.
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From Anglo-Norman maxime and Middle French maxime, from Late Latin maxima (“axiom”), noun use of the feminine singular form of Latin maximus (apparently as used in the phrase prōpositiō maxima (“greatest premise”)). Doublet of maxima.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it MAKSUHM.
Related meanings
Synonyms AXIOM
Use MAXIM in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 81.8% 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: August 8, 2021 (#50).
See the full page for that puzzle: August 8, 2021 (#50).
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 →MAXIM 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 #385
Reveal this appearance's category
MAXIM appeared in OLD SAYING (yellow group).
How MAXIM performs as a guess
MAXIM 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 66.8% of games, misses completely in 33.2%, and leaves about 434 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #14,531 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.96 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 MAXIM 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 MAXIM 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 MAXIM in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
MAXIM can come back 53 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 MAXIM; 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 MAXIM
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to MAXIM.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing MAXIM:
Research on MAXIM
Game-tree analysis and word research for MAXIM, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with MAXIM, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.96 guesses and ranks #14,489 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 4.12 guesses at best and is rank #7,228 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.96, at or below the proven-optimal 3.96, 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
- MAXIM 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.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sound (2.5 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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).