SMEAR
Yes, SMEAR was the Wordle answer on August 7, 2022 (Wordle #414).
As an opener, it rules out about 95.6% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /smɪə(ɹ)//smiɚ//smɪɚ/
- Verb
-
To spread (a substance, especially one that colours or is dirty) across a surface by rubbing.
“The artist smeared paint over the canvas in broad strokes.”
- Verb
-
To cover (a surface with a layer of some substance) by rubbing.
“She smeared her lips with lipstick.”
- Noun
-
A mark made by smearing.
“This detergent cleans windows without leaving smears.”
- Noun
-
A false or unsupported, malicious statement intended to injure a person's reputation.
“smear campaign”
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: August 7, 2022 (#414).
See the full page for that puzzle: August 7, 2022 (#414).
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 SMEAR performs as a guess
SMEAR 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 88.3% of games, misses completely in 11.7%, and leaves about 104 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,447 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.63 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 SMEAR 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 SMEAR 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 SMEAR in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
SMEAR 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 SMEAR; 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 SMEAR
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to SMEAR.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing SMEAR:
Research on SMEAR
Game-tree analysis and word research for SMEAR, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with SMEAR, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.65 guesses and ranks #1,773 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 SMEAR can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.63, at or below the proven-optimal 3.65, 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, SMEAR is a kind of defamation or specimen.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- SMEAR sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 3 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 10, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 72 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.1 of 5).
In a sentence
First clean it, smear it with a little oil, and put it back.
The ruling party is running a smear campaign against the opposition.
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).