MIMIC
Yes, MIMIC was the Wordle answer on August 6, 2021 (Wordle #48).
As an opener, it rules out about 72.2% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈmɪm.ɪk/
- Verb
-
To imitate, especially in order to ridicule.
- Verb
-
To take on the appearance of another, for protection or camouflage.
- Noun
-
A person who practices mimicry; especially:
- Noun
-
An entity that mimics another entity, such as a disease that resembles another disease in its signs and symptoms; see the great imitator.
Alternative forms: mimick
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
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 6, 2021 (#48).
See the full page for that puzzle: August 6, 2021 (#48).
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 MIMIC performs as a guess
MIMIC is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,374 when every answer is treated as equally likely.
Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 50.6% of games, misses completely in 49.4%, and leaves about 660 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #14,610 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.98 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 MIMIC 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 MIMIC 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 MIMIC in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
MIMIC can come back 49 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 MIMIC; 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 MIMIC
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to MIMIC.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing MIMIC:
Research on MIMIC
Game-tree analysis and word research for MIMIC, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with MIMIC, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.98 guesses and ranks #14,623 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 4.13 guesses at best and is rank #7,258 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.98, at or below the proven-optimal 3.98, 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.
How it sounds
Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it MIHMIHK.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, MIMIC is a kind of cheat or copy.
Synonyms mime
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- MIMIC sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 3 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
- Learner level
- Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 9, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 46 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.6 of 5).
In a sentence
Just mimic what he does.
She can mimic the teacher.
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).