PAPER
Yes, PAPER was the Wordle answer on July 24, 2021 (Wordle #35).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈpeɪ̯.pə//ˈpeɪ̯.pəɹ/[ˈpʰeɪ̯.pɚ]
- Noun
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A sheet material typically used for writing on or printing on (or as a non-waterproof container), usually made by draining cellulose fibres from a suspension in water.
“Draw on the paper! Not on the walls!”
- Noun
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Ellipsis of newspaper; anything used as such (such as a newsletter or listing magazine).
“Read all about it in this morning's paper!”
- Adjective
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Made of paper.
- Adjective
-
Insubstantial (from the weakness of common paper).
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From Middle English paper, from Anglo-Norman paper, from Old Catalan paper, borrowed from Latin papȳrus (and given the Catalan suffix -er), from Ancient Greek πάπυρος (pápuros).
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it PAYPUR.
Rhymes with VAPOR TAPER CAPER RAPER
Related meanings
Synonyms report THEME newspaper composition wallpaper
In a sentence
What was on the paper?
Do you get the paper?
Use PAPER in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 93.0% of possible answers.
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: July 24, 2021 (#35).
See the full page for that puzzle: July 24, 2021 (#35).
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 →PAPER in Connections
13 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . Showing the 5 most recent. A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.
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· Puzzle #1036
Reveal this appearance's category
PAPER appeared in ___ DOLL (purple group).
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· Puzzle #927
Reveal this appearance's category
PAPER appeared in SLANG FOR MONEY (yellow group).
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· Puzzle #740
Reveal this appearance's category
PAPER appeared in WAX ___ (purple group).
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· Puzzle #655
Reveal this appearance's category
PAPER appeared in SLANG FOR MONEY (blue group).
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· Puzzle #634
Reveal this appearance's category
PAPER appeared in SAND___ (purple group).
How PAPER performs as a guess
PAPER 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 82.6% of games, misses completely in 17.4%, and leaves about 167 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,223 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe PAPER 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 PAPER 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 PAPER in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
PAPER can come back 86 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 PAPER; 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 PAPER
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to PAPER.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing PAPER:
Research on PAPER
Game-tree analysis and word research for PAPER, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with PAPER, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses and ranks #8,729 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 PAPER 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
- PAPER sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 117 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
- Learner level
- Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A1); among the first words English learners study.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 4, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 92 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
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).