NERVE
Yes, NERVE was the Wordle answer on January 1, 2025 (Wordle #1292).
As an opener, it rules out about 90.2% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /nɜːv//nəːv//nɝv/
- Noun
-
A bundle of neurons with their connective tissue sheaths, blood vessels and lymphatics.
“The nerves can be seen through the skin.”
- Noun
-
A neuron.
- Verb
-
To give courage.
“May their example nerve us to face the enemy.”
- Verb
-
To give strength; to supply energy or vigour.
“The liquor nerved up several of the men after their icy march.”
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: January 1, 2025 (#1292).
See the full page for that puzzle: January 1, 2025 (#1292).
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 NERVE performs as a guess
NERVE 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 75.4% of games, misses completely in 24.6%, and leaves about 232 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,921 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.76 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 NERVE 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 NERVE 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 NERVE in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
NERVE can come back 94 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 NERVE; 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 NERVE
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to NERVE.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing NERVE:
Research on NERVE
Game-tree analysis and word research for NERVE, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with NERVE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.78 guesses and ranks #9,589 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.95 guesses at best and is rank #5,259 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.76, at or below the proven-optimal 3.78, 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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, NERVE is a kind of courage or drive.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- NERVE sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 15 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 B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with internal bodily sensation (3.7 of 5).
In a sentence
You don't have the nerve.
You have a lot of nerve!
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; Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).