SQUAD
Yes, SQUAD has been the Wordle answer on April 11, 2022 (Wordle #296) and February 17, 2026 (Wordle #1704).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈskwɒd//ˈskwɑd//ˈskwæd/
- Noun
-
A group of people organized for some common purpose, usually of about ten members.
“He assembled a squad of ten to take on the assassin.”
- Noun
-
Ellipsis of squad truck.
- Verb
-
To act as part of, or on behalf of, a squad.
- Verb
-
To transport by ambulance.
Alternative forms: escouade
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
Uncertain. Compare squick (“disgust”), squalid (“dirty”) with similar initial sounds.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
One syllable Say it SKWAHD.
Rhymes with SCROD
Related meanings
Synonyms team
In a sentence
We have a great squad.
Tom is on my squad.
Use SQUAD in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 88.3% 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: April 11, 2022 (#296); February 17, 2026 (#1704).
See the full page for each puzzle: April 11, 2022 (#296); February 17, 2026 (#1704).
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 →SQUAD in Connections
1 recorded appearance in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.
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· Puzzle #787
Reveal this appearance's category
SQUAD appeared in MUSCLE NICKNAMES PLUS “S” (purple group).
How SQUAD performs as a guess
SQUAD 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 74.7% of games, misses completely in 25.3%, and leaves about 279 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #11,994 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.81 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 SQUAD 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 SQUAD 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 SQUAD in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
SQUAD can come back 60 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 SQUAD; 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 SQUAD
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to SQUAD.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing SQUAD:
Research on SQUAD
Game-tree analysis and word research for SQUAD, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with SQUAD, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.84 guesses and ranks #12,411 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 SQUAD can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.81, at or below the proven-optimal 3.84, 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
- SQUAD 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 intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 9, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 61 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.4 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).