SCALD
Yes, SCALD was the Wordle answer on September 29, 2022 (Wordle #467).
As an opener, it rules out about 93.7% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /skɔld//skɑld//skɔːld/
- Verb
-
To burn with hot liquid.
“to scald the hand”
- Verb
-
To heat almost to boiling.
“Scald the milk until little bubbles form.”
- Noun
-
A burn, or injury to the skin or flesh, by hot liquid or steam.
- Noun
-
A paste, made by mixing flour with hot or boiling water (causing starches in it to gelatinize and hold more water) and allowing that mixture to sit and cool, which is added to bread dough to produce a softer bread that takes longer to stale.
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 29, 2022 (#467).
See the full page for that puzzle: September 29, 2022 (#467).
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 SCALD performs as a guess
SCALD 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 81.8% of games, misses completely in 18.2%, and leaves about 150 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #594 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 SCALD 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 SCALD 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 SCALD in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
SCALD can come back 94 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 SCALD; 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 SCALD
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to SCALD.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing SCALD:
Research on SCALD
Game-tree analysis and word research for SCALD, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with SCALD, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.63 guesses and ranks #979 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 SCALD can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.59, at or below the proven-optimal 3.63, 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
One syllable Say it SKAWLD.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, SCALD is a kind of burn or hurt.
Synonyms whip blister
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- SCALD sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than 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: 66 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with touch (3.3 of 5).
In a sentence
If you spill boiling water, you can easily scald yourself.
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).