NEEDY
Yes, NEEDY was the Wordle answer on August 24, 2022 (Wordle #431).
As an opener, it rules out about 88.6% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈniːdi/
- Adjective
-
In need; poor.
“Needy people want to give too, but have few material goods to offer.”
- Adjective
-
Desiring constant affirmation; lacking self-confidence.
“It's emotionally exhausting to be around her because she's so needy.”
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 24, 2022 (#431).
See the full page for that puzzle: August 24, 2022 (#431).
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 NEEDY performs as a guess
NEEDY 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 74.9% of games, misses completely in 25.1%, and leaves about 271 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,918 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.78 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 NEEDY 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 NEEDY 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 NEEDY in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
NEEDY can come back 79 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 NEEDY; 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 NEEDY
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to NEEDY.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing NEEDY:
Research on NEEDY
Game-tree analysis and word research for NEEDY, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with NEEDY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.80 guesses and ranks #10,651 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 NEEDY can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.78, at or below the proven-optimal 3.80, 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 NEEDEE.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, NEEDY is a kind of poor.
Synonyms impoverished destitute poor demanding
Opposites rich
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- NEEDY sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 4 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: 37 of 100. Raters found it difficult to picture.
In a sentence
We should help the needy.
We do this to help the needy.
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).