THIRD
Yes, THIRD was the Wordle answer on December 20, 2022 (Wordle #549).
As an opener, it rules out about 92.7% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /θɜːd//θɚd//θɪɹd/
- Adjective
-
The ordinal form of the cardinal number three; Coming after the second.
“The third tree from the left is my favorite.”
- Noun
-
The person or thing in the third position.
“Jones came in third.”
- Noun
-
One of three equal parts of a whole.
“He ate a third of the pie. Divided by two-thirds.”
- Verb
-
To agree with a proposition or statement after it has already been seconded.
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: December 20, 2022 (#549).
See the full page for that puzzle: December 20, 2022 (#549).
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 THIRD performs as a guess
THIRD 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 80.3% of games, misses completely in 19.7%, and leaves about 173 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,202 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.60 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 THIRD 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 THIRD 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 THIRD in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
THIRD can come back 107 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 THIRD; 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 THIRD
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to THIRD.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing THIRD:
Research on THIRD
Game-tree analysis and word research for THIRD, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with THIRD, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.65 guesses and ranks #1,731 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 THIRD can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.60, at or below the proven-optimal 3.65, 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, THIRD is a kind of fraction or position.
Synonyms tertiary thirdly
Opposites cardinal
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- THIRD sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 209 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 A2); among the first words English learners study.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 5, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 42 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.1 of 5).
In a sentence
Is there a third way?
This is my third year.
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).