OCCUR
Yes, OCCUR was the Wordle answer on October 20, 2023 (Wordle #853).
As an opener, it rules out about 87.8% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /əˈkɜː//əˈkɝ//əˈkʌr/
- Verb
-
To happen or take place.
“The liftoff will occur in exactly twelve seconds.”
- Verb
-
To present or offer itself.
“I will write if the opportunity occurs.”
Alternative forms: occurre
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: October 20, 2023 (#853).
See the full page for that puzzle: October 20, 2023 (#853).
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 OCCUR performs as a guess
OCCUR 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 72.3% of games, misses completely in 27.7%, and leaves about 290 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #11,408 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.79 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 OCCUR 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 OCCUR 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 OCCUR in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
OCCUR can come back 70 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 OCCUR; 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 OCCUR
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to OCCUR.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing OCCUR:
Research on OCCUR
Game-tree analysis and word research for OCCUR, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with OCCUR, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.85 guesses and ranks #12,659 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 OCCUR can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.79, at or below the proven-optimal 3.85, 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 second syllable Say it UHKUR.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, OCCUR is a kind of become or appear.
Synonyms come happen pass hap
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- OCCUR sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 30 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 9, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 16 of 100. Raters found it difficult to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.8 of 5).
In a sentence
That did occur to me.
That didn't occur to me.
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).