Possible answer Not used yet C tier for first-turn info

NEWER

NEWER is on the solver's possible-answer list and has no appearance in our globally completed Wordle history.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈnjuː.ə//ˈn(j)u.ɚ/

Adjective

comparative form of new: more new, more recent.

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Etymology

From Middle English newer, newere, from Old English nīwra, from Proto-Germanic *niwizô (“newer”), comparative of Proto-Germanic *niwjaz (“new”), equivalent to new + -er. Cognate with West Frisian nijere (“newer”), Dutch nieuwere (“newer”), German neuer (“newer”), Danish nyere (“newer”), Swedish nyare (“newer”), Icelandic nýrri (“newer”).

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it NOOUR.

Rhymes with FEWER SEWER TRUER DEWAR BLUER

Related meanings

Synonyms YOUNG modern FRESH NOVEL raw NEWLY

Opposites old worn same EARLY

In a sentence

My car is newer than yours.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
My phone is newer than yours.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use NEWER in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 90.2% of possible answers.

Wordle status

A word can be a playable guess without being a possible answer.

Playable guess

Yes

Included in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.

Possible answer

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

Past Wordle answer

No completed appearance

No appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

How NEWER performs as a guess

NEWER is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,384 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 76.1% of games, misses completely in 23.9%, and leaves about 234 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,483 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.77 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.

All gray? Tap a tile to cycle gray → yellow → green.

First-turn measures

All four describe NEWER 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.

4.35 Entropy (bits)
234 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
90.2% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How NEWER 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.

3.77 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#10,483 Rank among openers
Opening with NEWER left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.77 average. It ranks #10,483 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
50
3 guesses
765
4 guesses
1,225
5 guesses
292
6 guesses
20

Composition

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ENR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
27%
All gray
24%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S I L E D
P E N C E
N E V E R
N E W E R

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches NEWER in 5 guesses. See the trap-family guide for similar endgames.

Feedback distribution

NEWER can come back 84 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

569 answers
266 answers
244 answers
224 answers
122 answers
93 answers
74 answers
67 answers
58 answers
49 answers
48 answers
46 answers
42 answers
34 answers
28 answers
25 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

Base letter-value totals for NEWER; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.

Scrabble

N1E1W4E1R1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.

Strategy after playing NEWER

What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to NEWER.

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing NEWER:

24% chance
Suggested:
SAULT
11% chance
Suggested:
COAST
10% chance
Suggested:
SAULT

Follow-ups for common patterns

Ranked follow-up guesses for the 10 most common feedback patterns.

23.9% →
SAULT 5.94 bits
11.2% →
COAST 5.49 bits
10.2% →
SAULT 5.70 bits
9.4% →
SAINT 5.25 bits
5.1% →
COAST 4.74 bits
3.9% →
SOILY 3.57 bits
3.1% →
SLATY 4.75 bits
2.8% →
ANISE 4.63 bits
2.4% →
GROAN 4.34 bits
2.1% →
CADET 4.03 bits

Research on NEWER

Game-tree analysis and word research for NEWER, with an explanation for each figure.

Optimal play

Opening with NEWER, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses and ranks #8,623 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 NEWER can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.77; proven optimal play reaches 3.76. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.

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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
NEWER sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 9 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.

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).