SMOKE
Yes, SMOKE was the Wordle answer on September 20, 2024 (Wordle #1189).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /sməʊk//smoʊk//sməʉk/
- Noun
-
The visible vapor/vapour, gases, and fine particles given off by burning or smoldering material.
- Noun
-
A cigarette.
“Can I bum a smoke off you?”
- Verb
-
To inhale and exhale the smoke from a burning cigarette or cigar, burning material in a pipe, etc.
“He's smoking his pipe.”
- Verb
-
To inhale and exhale tobacco smoke.
“Do you smoke?”
Alternative forms: smoak
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From Middle English smoken, from Old English smocian (“to smoke, to emit smoke”), from Proto-West Germanic *smokōn, from Proto-Germanic *smukōną (“to smoke”), ablaut derivative of Proto-Germanic *smaukaną (“to smoke”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mewg- (“to smoke”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian smookje (“to smoke”), West Frisian smoke (“to smoke”), Dutch smoken (“to smoke”), Low German smöken (“to smoke”), German Low German smoken (“to smoke”).
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
One syllable Say it SMOHK.
Rhymes with BROKE SPOKE STOKE CHOKE CLOAK
Related meanings
Synonyms smoking pot GRASS weed bullet dope
In a sentence
Do you have a smoke?
You don't smoke, do you?
Use SMOKE in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 92.6% 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: September 20, 2024 (#1189).
See the full page for that puzzle: September 20, 2024 (#1189).
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 →SMOKE 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 #1222
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SMOKE appeared in WAYS TO PRESERVE FOOD (yellow group).
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· Puzzle #692
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SMOKE appeared in DEFEAT SOUNDLY (green group).
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· Puzzle #212
Reveal this appearance's category
SMOKE appeared in THINGS THAT MAKE YOU SNEEZE (blue group).
How SMOKE performs as a guess
SMOKE 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 83.3% of games, misses completely in 16.7%, and leaves about 177 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,955 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.74 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 SMOKE 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 SMOKE 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 SMOKE in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
SMOKE can come back 89 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 SMOKE; 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 SMOKE
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to SMOKE.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing SMOKE:
Research on SMOKE
Game-tree analysis and word research for SMOKE, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with SMOKE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.72 guesses and ranks #5,969 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.85 guesses at best and is rank #2,738 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.74; proven optimal play reaches 3.72. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.
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
- SMOKE sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 47 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 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 84 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
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).