SPRIG
Yes, SPRIG was the Wordle answer on January 6, 2025 (Wordle #1297).
As an opener, it rules out about 91.8% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /spɹɪɡ/
- Noun
-
A small shoot or twig of a tree or other plant; a spray.
“a sprig of laurel or of parsley”
- Noun
-
An ornament resembling a small shoot or twig.
- Verb
-
To decorate with sprigs, or with representations of sprigs, as in embroidery or pottery.
- Verb
-
To nail the sole onto a shoe.
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: January 6, 2025 (#1297).
See the full page for that puzzle: January 6, 2025 (#1297).
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 SPRIG performs as a guess
SPRIG 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 78.8% of games, misses completely in 21.2%, and leaves about 194 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,826 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.62 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 SPRIG 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 SPRIG 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 SPRIG in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
SPRIG can come back 93 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 SPRIG; 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 SPRIG
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to SPRIG.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing SPRIG:
Research on SPRIG
Game-tree analysis and word research for SPRIG, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with SPRIG, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #3,850 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.79 guesses at best and is rank #1,176 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.62, at or below the proven-optimal 3.69, 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.
How it sounds
One syllable Say it SPRIHG. Estimated pronunciation
This pronunciation is machine-estimated, not taken from a pronunciation dictionary.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, SPRIG is a kind of branch or decoration.
Synonyms twig
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- SPRIG sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.7 of 5).
In a sentence
I bought a sprig of lily of the valley.
Put a sprig of mint on top as a garnish.
Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model; Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).