PRISM
Yes, PRISM was the Wordle answer on December 25, 2025 (Wordle #1650).
As an opener, it rules out about 92.0% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈpɹɪz(ə)m/[ˈpʰɹ̠̊ɪzm̩]/ˈpɹɪzəm/
- Noun
-
A polyhedron with parallel ends of the same polygonal shape and size, the other faces being parallelogram-shaped sides.
- Noun
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A retroreflector (“device which reflects light back to its source with minimal scattering”) which is usually attached to a surveying pole as a target for a total station which emits a light beam at the device and calculates how long it takes to be reflected back in order to measure distance.
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: December 25, 2025 (#1650).
See the full page for that puzzle: December 25, 2025 (#1650).
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 PRISM performs as a guess
PRISM 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 78.6% of games, misses completely in 21.4%, and leaves about 189 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,721 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.61 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 PRISM 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 PRISM 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 PRISM in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
PRISM can come back 97 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 PRISM; 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 PRISM
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to PRISM.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing PRISM:
Research on PRISM
Game-tree analysis and word research for PRISM, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with PRISM, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #2,381 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.77 guesses at best and is rank #741 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.61, at or below the proven-optimal 3.66, 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 first syllable Say it PRIHZUHM.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, PRISM is a kind of solid or device.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- PRISM sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 3 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.4 of 5).
In a sentence
Inside the prism, violet light slows down more than red light.
How many vertices and faces does a pentagonal prism have?
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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).