UPPER
Yes, UPPER was the Wordle answer on January 23, 2025 (Wordle #1314).
As an opener, it rules out about 89.6% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈʌpə//ˈʌpɚ//ˈʊpə/
- Adjective
-
At a higher physical position, level, rank or order.
- Adjective
-
Situated on higher ground, further inland, more upstream, or more northerly.
- Noun
-
A stimulant, such as amphetamine, that increases energy and decreases appetite.
- Noun
-
The upper portion of something.
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 23, 2025 (#1314).
See the full page for that puzzle: January 23, 2025 (#1314).
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 UPPER performs as a guess
UPPER 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 77.7% of games, misses completely in 22.3%, and leaves about 246 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,516 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.83 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 UPPER 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 UPPER 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 UPPER in 5 guesses. See the trap-family guide for similar endgames.
Feedback distribution
UPPER can come back 70 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 UPPER; 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 UPPER
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to UPPER.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing UPPER:
Research on UPPER
Game-tree analysis and word research for UPPER, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with UPPER, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.82 guesses and ranks #11,680 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 UPPER can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.83, at or below the proven-optimal 3.82, 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 first syllable Say it UHPUR.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, UPPER is a kind of bunk or piece.
Synonyms SPEED high superior
Opposites LOWER low inferior
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- UPPER sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 52 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.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.3 of 5).
In a sentence
He got the upper hand.
He's got the upper hand.
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; Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).