PATCH
Yes, PATCH was the Wordle answer on April 20, 2025 (Wordle #1401).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /pæt͡ʃ/
- Noun
-
A piece of cloth, or other suitable material, sewed or otherwise fixed upon a garment to repair or strengthen it, especially upon an old garment to cover a hole.
“His sleeves had patches on the elbows where different fabric had been sewn on to replace material that had worn away.”
- Noun
-
A small piece of anything used to repair damage or a breach; as, a patch on a kettle, a roof, etc.
“I can't afford to replace the roof, which is what it really needs. I'll have the roofer apply a patch.”
- Verb
-
To mend by sewing on a piece or pieces of cloth, leather, or the like.
“My coat needs patching.”
- Verb
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To mend with pieces; to repair by fastening pieces on.
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From Middle English patche, of uncertain origin. Perhaps an alteration of earlier Middle English placche (“patch, spot, piece of cloth”), from Old English *plæċċ, *pleċċ (“a spot, mark, patch”), from Proto-West Germanic *plakkju, from Proto-Germanic *plakjō (“spot, stain”). For the loss of l compare pat from Middle English platten.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
One syllable Say it PACH.
Rhymes with MATCH CATCH BATCH HATCH LATCH
Related meanings
Synonyms WHILE PIECE spot plot SPELL darn
In a sentence
He's not a patch on him.
It's time to patch things up.
Use PATCH in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 91.0% 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: April 20, 2025 (#1401).
See the full page for that puzzle: April 20, 2025 (#1401).
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 →PATCH in Connections
5 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.
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· Puzzle #1011
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PATCH appeared in INTERVAL (yellow group).
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· Puzzle #964
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PATCH appeared in REGION (yellow group).
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· Puzzle #846
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PATCH appeared in FIX A HOLE IN CLOTHING (yellow group).
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· Puzzle #710
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PATCH appeared in MEDICINE FORMATS (blue group).
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· Puzzle #470
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PATCH appeared in BIT OF LAND FOR GROWING (green group).
How PATCH performs as a guess
PATCH 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 75.9% of games, misses completely in 24.1%, and leaves about 214 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #703 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.59 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 PATCH 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 PATCH 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 PATCH in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
PATCH can come back 106 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 PATCH; 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 PATCH
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to PATCH.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing PATCH:
Research on PATCH
Game-tree analysis and word research for PATCH, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with PATCH, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.67 guesses and ranks #2,546 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 PATCH can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.59, at or below the proven-optimal 3.67, 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.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- PATCH sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 16 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.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 7, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 70 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.9 of 5).
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).