PRESS
Yes, PRESS was the Wordle answer on September 19, 2024 (Wordle #1188).
As an opener, it rules out about 90.9% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /pɹɛs//pɹes//pɾɛs/
- Noun
-
An instance of applying pressure; an instance of pressing.
- Noun
-
A device used to apply pressure to an item.
“a flower press”
- Verb
-
To exert weight or force against, to act upon with force or weight; to exert pressure upon.
- Verb
-
To activate a button or key by exerting a downward or forward force on it, and then releasing it.
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: September 19, 2024 (#1188).
See the full page for that puzzle: September 19, 2024 (#1188).
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 PRESS performs as a guess
PRESS 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 78.9% of games, misses completely in 21.1%, and leaves about 217 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,904 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 PRESS 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 PRESS 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 PRESS in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
PRESS can come back 77 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 PRESS; 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 PRESS
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to PRESS.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing PRESS:
Research on PRESS
Game-tree analysis and word research for PRESS, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with PRESS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.79 guesses and ranks #10,478 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 PRESS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.76, at or below the proven-optimal 3.79, 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, PRESS is a kind of urgency or medium.
Synonyms FIGHT pressure campaign contract push iron
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- PRESS sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 145 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.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with touch (3.8 of 5).
In a sentence
I don't want to press you.
Don't talk to the press.
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).