MISER
Yes, MISER was the Wordle answer on December 13, 2025 (Wordle #1638).
As an opener, it rules out about 95.1% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈmaɪzə(ɹ)/
- Noun
-
A person who hoards money rather than spending it; one who is cheap or extremely parsimonious.
“Scrooge was a typical miser: spending nothing he could save, nor enjoying his wealth.”
- Noun
-
A kind of earth auger, typically large-bored and often hand-operated.
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: December 13, 2025 (#1638).
See the full page for that puzzle: December 13, 2025 (#1638).
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 MISER performs as a guess
MISER 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 87.7% of games, misses completely in 12.3%, and leaves about 115 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,847 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.63 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 MISER 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 MISER 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 MISER in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
MISER can come back 117 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 MISER; 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 MISER
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to MISER.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing MISER:
Research on MISER
Game-tree analysis and word research for MISER, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with MISER, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.65 guesses and ranks #1,552 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 MISER can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.63, at or below the proven-optimal 3.65, 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 MYZUR.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, MISER is a kind of saver.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- MISER 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.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 12, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 45 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
What a miser you are!
Don't be such a miser.
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); Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).