PRUNE
Yes, PRUNE was the Wordle answer on April 28, 2024 (Wordle #1044).
As an opener, it rules out about 94.8% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /pɹuːn//pɹun//pɹʉːn/
- Noun
-
The dried, wrinkled fruit of certain species of plum.
- Noun
-
Something wrinkly like a prune.
- Verb
-
To become wrinkled like a dried plum, as the fingers and toes do when kept submerged in water.
- Verb
-
To remove excess material from a tree or shrub; to trim, especially to make more healthy or productive.
“A good grape grower will prune the vines once a year.”
Alternative forms: proin
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: April 28, 2024 (#1044).
See the full page for that puzzle: April 28, 2024 (#1044).
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 PRUNE performs as a guess
PRUNE 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 84.6% of games, misses completely in 15.4%, and leaves about 125 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,653 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 PRUNE 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 PRUNE 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 PRUNE in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
PRUNE can come back 119 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 PRUNE; 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 PRUNE
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to PRUNE.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing PRUNE:
Research on PRUNE
Game-tree analysis and word research for PRUNE, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with PRUNE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.64 guesses and ranks #1,160 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 PRUNE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.61, at or below the proven-optimal 3.64, 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, PRUNE is a kind of produce or cut.
Synonyms cut DRESS clip crop trim
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- PRUNE sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 9, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 74 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.3 of 5).
In a sentence
Do you want a prune?
You need to prune the roses.
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); Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).