TABOO
Yes, TABOO was the Wordle answer on March 31, 2024 (Wordle #1016).
As an opener, it rules out about 89.9% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /təˈbuː//tæˈbuː//ˈʈæ.bu/
- Noun
-
An inhibition or ban that results from social custom or emotional aversion.
- Noun
-
Something which may not be used, approached or mentioned because it is sacred.
- Adjective
-
Excluded or forbidden from use, approach or mention.
“Incest is a taboo subject in most soap operas.”
- Adjective
-
Culturally forbidden.
Alternative forms: tabu, tapu
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: March 31, 2024 (#1016).
See the full page for that puzzle: March 31, 2024 (#1016).
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 TABOO performs as a guess
TABOO 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 76.5% of games, misses completely in 23.5%, and leaves about 241 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,805 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.76 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 TABOO 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 TABOO 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 TABOO in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
TABOO can come back 85 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 TABOO; 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 TABOO
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to TABOO.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing TABOO:
Research on TABOO
Game-tree analysis and word research for TABOO, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with TABOO, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.79 guesses and ranks #10,263 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.91 guesses at best and is rank #4,385 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.76, at or below the proven-optimal 3.79, 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
Two syllables, stress on the second syllable Say it TABOO.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, TABOO is a kind of bias or inhibition.
Synonyms out prohibited forbidden sacred
Opposites permissible
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- TABOO sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 3 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 11, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 24 of 100. Raters found it difficult to picture.
In a sentence
Why is that a taboo?
That should be a taboo.
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); Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0).