SLEEP
Yes, SLEEP was the Wordle answer on December 7, 2023 (Wordle #901).
As an opener, it rules out about 91.7% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈsliːp/[ˈslɪi̯p]
- Verb
-
To rest in a state of reduced consciousness.
“You should sleep eight hours a day.”
- Verb
-
To have sexual intercourse (see sleep with).
“Last night we slept together for the first time.”
- Noun
-
The state of reduced consciousness during which a human or animal rests in a daily rhythm.
“I really need some sleep.”
- Noun
-
An act or instance of sleeping.
“I’m just going to have a quick sleep.”
Alternative forms: sleepe
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 7, 2023 (#901).
See the full page for that puzzle: December 7, 2023 (#901).
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 SLEEP performs as a guess
SLEEP 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 77.3% of games, misses completely in 22.7%, and leaves about 197 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,824 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 SLEEP 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 SLEEP 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 SLEEP in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
SLEEP can come back 106 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 SLEEP; 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 SLEEP
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to SLEEP.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing SLEEP:
Research on SLEEP
Game-tree analysis and word research for SLEEP, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with SLEEP, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #4,948 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 SLEEP can 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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, SLEEP is a kind of status or condition.
Synonyms rest nap slumber kip
Opposites wake
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- SLEEP sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 112 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 A1); among the first words English learners study.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 3, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 82 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with internal bodily sensation (3.5 of 5).
In a sentence
I like to sleep in.
You will have to sleep.
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).