NASTY
Yes, NASTY was the Wordle answer on March 2, 2022 (Wordle #256).
As an opener, it rules out about 93.9% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈnaː.sti//ˈnɑː.sti//ˈnæs.ti/
- Adjective
-
Dirty, filthy.
- Adjective
-
Contemptible, unpleasant (of a person).
- Noun
-
Something nasty.
“Processed foods are full of aspartame and other nasties.”
- Noun
-
Sexual intercourse.
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: March 2, 2022 (#256).
See the full page for that puzzle: March 2, 2022 (#256).
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 NASTY performs as a guess
NASTY 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 83.7% of games, misses completely in 16.3%, and leaves about 144 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,046 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.64 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 NASTY 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 NASTY 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 NASTY in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
NASTY can come back 108 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 NASTY; 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 NASTY
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to NASTY.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing NASTY:
Research on NASTY
Game-tree analysis and word research for NASTY, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with NASTY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.68 guesses and ranks #3,626 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 NASTY can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, at or below the proven-optimal 3.68, 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 NASTEE.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- NASTY sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 17 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
- Learner level
- Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B1); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 5, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 40 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.9 of 5).
In a sentence
What a nasty man he is!
What a nasty thing to do!
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).