SCREW
SCREW is on the solver's possible-answer list and has no appearance in our globally completed Wordle history.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈskɹuː//ˈskɹʉw//ˈskɹu/
- Noun
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A device that has a helical function.
- Noun
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The motion of screwing something; a turn or twist to one side.
- Verb
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To connect or assemble pieces using a screw.
- Verb
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To have sexual intercourse with.
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From Middle English screw, scrue (“screw”); apparently, despite the difference in meaning, from Old French escroue (“nut, cylindrical socket, screwhole”), from Latin scrōfa (“female pig”) through comparison with the corkscrew shape of a pig's penis. There is also the Old French escruve (“screw”), from Old Dutch *scrūva ("screw"; whence Middle Dutch schruyve (“screw”)), which probably influenced or conflated with the aforementioned, resulting in the Middle English word.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
One syllable Say it SKROO.
Rhymes with DEBUT THREW QUEUE RENEW CANOE
Related meanings
Synonyms know love fuck fucking bed ass
In a sentence
Where is the other screw?
Don't screw around with me.
Use SCREW in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 93.5% 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
No completed appearanceNo appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.
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 →SCREW in Connections
6 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . Showing the 5 most recent. A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.
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· Puzzle #1144
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SCREW appeared in FASTENERS (yellow group).
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· Puzzle #998
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SCREW appeared in BITS OF HARDWARE (yellow group).
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· Puzzle #603
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SCREW appeared in BUNGLE, WITH “UP” (purple group).
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· Puzzle #538
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SCREW appeared in ___BALL PITCHES (purple group).
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· Puzzle #375
Reveal this appearance's category
SCREW appeared in BITS OF HARDWARE (yellow group).
How SCREW performs as a guess
SCREW 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 83.2% of games, misses completely in 16.8%, and leaves about 154 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,915 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.68 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 SCREW 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 SCREW 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 SCREW in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
SCREW can come back 91 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 SCREW; 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 SCREW
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to SCREW.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing SCREW:
Research on SCREW
Game-tree analysis and word research for SCREW, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with SCREW, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #4,995 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.82 guesses at best and is rank #1,973 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.68, at or below the proven-optimal 3.70, 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
- SCREW sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 18 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
- Learner level
- Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A2); among the first words English learners study.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 9, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 79 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.8 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).