SMILE
Yes, SMILE has been the Wordle answer on September 27, 2023 (Wordle #830) and May 30, 2026 (Wordle #1806).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈsmaɪl//ˈsmaɪ.əl/
- Noun
-
A facial expression comprised by flexing the muscles of both ends of one's mouth, often showing the front teeth, without vocalisation, and in humans is a common involuntary or voluntary expression of happiness, pleasure, amusement, goodwill, or anxiety.
“She's got a perfect smile.”
- Noun
-
Favour; propitious regard.
“the smile of the gods”
- Verb
-
To have (a smile) on one's face.
“When you smile, the whole world smiles with you.”
- Verb
-
To express by smiling.
“to smile consent, or a welcome”
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From Middle English smilen (“to smile”), from Middle Low German *smîlen (“to smile”), from Middle High German smielen, from Old High German smielēn, from Proto-West Germanic *smīlēn, from Proto-Germanic *smīlāną (“to smile”), from Proto-Indo-European *smey- (“to laugh, be glad, wonder”).
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
One syllable Say it SMYL.
Rhymes with WHILE STYLE AISLE GUILE STILE
Related meanings
Synonyms smiling grin grinning
In a sentence
You have a great smile.
You need to smile more.
Use SMILE in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 95.1% 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 2 timesPast Wordle answer: September 27, 2023 (#830); May 30, 2026 (#1806).
See the full page for each puzzle: September 27, 2023 (#830); May 30, 2026 (#1806).
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 →SMILE in Connections
2 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.
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· Puzzle #765
Reveal this appearance's category
SMILE appeared in HORROR MOVIES FROM 2022 (blue group).
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· Puzzle #348
Reveal this appearance's category
SMILE appeared in THINGS TO CRACK (blue group).
How SMILE performs as a guess
SMILE 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 86.4% of games, misses completely in 13.6%, and leaves about 117 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,558 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.61 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 SMILE 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 SMILE 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 SMILE in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
SMILE can come back 116 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 SMILE; 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 SMILE
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to SMILE.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing SMILE:
Research on SMILE
Game-tree analysis and word research for SMILE, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with SMILE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.64 guesses and ranks #1,210 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.76 guesses at best and is rank #543 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.61, at or below the proven-optimal 3.64, 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
- SMILE sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 44 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: 93 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.7 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).