SKULL
Yes, SKULL was the Wordle answer on February 15, 2026 (Wordle #1702).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈskʌl//skʊl/
- Noun
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The main bones of the head considered as a unit; including the cranium, facial bones, and mandible.
- Noun
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These bones as a symbol for death; death's-head.
- Verb
-
To hit in the head with a fist, a weapon, or a thrown object.
- Verb
-
To strike the top of (the ball).
Alternative forms: scull
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From Middle English sculle, scolle (also schulle, scholle), probably from a dialectal form of Old Norse skalli (“bald head, skull”), itself probably related to Old English sċealu (“husk”), to Proto-Norse *ᛋᚲᚨᛚᛟ (*skalo), from Proto-Germanic *skallô; compare Finnish skallo. Compare Scots scull, Danish skal (“skull”) and skalle (“bald head, skull”), Norwegian skalle, Swedish skalle and especially dialectal Swedish skulle.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
One syllable Say it SKUHL.
In a sentence
Are you out of your skull?
There's nothing inside my skull.
Use SKULL in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 83.1% 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
Used oncePast Wordle answer: February 15, 2026 (#1702).
See the full page for that puzzle: February 15, 2026 (#1702).
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 →SKULL in Connections
3 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.
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· Puzzle #560
Reveal this appearance's category
SKULL appeared in SLANG FOR HEAD (yellow group).
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· Puzzle #403
Reveal this appearance's category
SKULL appeared in EMOJI (purple group).
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· Puzzle #341
Reveal this appearance's category
SKULL appeared in CLASSIC STILL LIFE COMPONENTS (blue group).
How SKULL performs as a guess
SKULL 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 62.5% of games, misses completely in 37.5%, and leaves about 402 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #11,603 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.80 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 SKULL 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 SKULL 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 SKULL in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
SKULL can come back 63 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 SKULL; 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 SKULL
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to SKULL.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing SKULL:
Research on SKULL
Game-tree analysis and word research for SKULL, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with SKULL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.85 guesses and ranks #12,724 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.98 guesses at best and is rank #5,895 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.80, at or below the proven-optimal 3.85, 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
- SKULL sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 12 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 7, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 95 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.3 of 5).
Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).