STICK
Yes, STICK was the Wordle answer on September 18, 2022 (Wordle #456).
As an opener, it rules out about 89.9% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /stɪk/
- Noun
-
An elongated piece of wood or similar material, typically put to some use, for example as a wand or baton.
“The beaver's dam was made out of sticks.”
- Noun
-
Any roughly cylindrical (or rectangular) unit of a substance.
“Sealing wax is available as a cylindrical or rectangular stick.”
- Verb
-
To cut a piece of wood to be the stick member of a cope-and-stick joint.
- Verb
-
To furnish or set with sticks.
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: September 18, 2022 (#456).
See the full page for that puzzle: September 18, 2022 (#456).
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 STICK performs as a guess
STICK 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 73.4% of games, misses completely in 26.6%, and leaves about 240 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #4,701 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.66 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 STICK 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 STICK 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 STICK in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
STICK can come back 88 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 STICK; 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 STICK
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to STICK.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing STICK:
Research on STICK
Game-tree analysis and word research for STICK, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with STICK, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,572 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.83 guesses at best and is rank #2,343 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.66, at or below the proven-optimal 3.71, 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, STICK is a kind of implement or limb.
Synonyms get stay beat remain JOINT bond
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- STICK sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 58 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 B1); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 4, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 85 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
What was the stick for?
Do you have the stick?
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).