UPSET
Yes, UPSET was the Wordle answer on July 29, 2022 (Wordle #405).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ʌpˈsɛt//ɐpˈset//ˈʌp.sɛt/
- Adjective
-
Angry, distressed, or unhappy
“He was upset when she refused his friendship.”
- Adjective
-
Feeling unwell, nauseated, or ready to vomit.
“His stomach was upset, so he didn't want to move.”
- Noun
-
Disturbance or disruption.
“My late arrival caused the professor considerable upset.”
- Noun
-
An unexpected victory of a competitor or candidate that was not favored to win.
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From Middle English upset (“the act of setting up; establishment”), from Middle English upsetten, corresponding to up- + set. Cognate with Middle Low German upset (“setup; arrangement”).
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
Two syllables, stress on the second syllable Say it UHPSEHT.
Rhymes with SWEAT RESET CADET BESET UNMET
Related meanings
Synonyms broken trouble worried confused disorder disturbed
Opposites well expected organized
In a sentence
I was upset about that.
Are you upset with me?
Use UPSET in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 93.3% 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 oncePast Wordle answer: July 29, 2022 (#405).
See the full page for that puzzle: July 29, 2022 (#405).
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 →UPSET 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 #364
Reveal this appearance's category
UPSET appeared in FEELING SOME TYPE OF WAY (yellow group).
How UPSET performs as a guess
UPSET 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 82.2% of games, misses completely in 17.8%, and leaves about 159 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,075 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.64 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 UPSET 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 UPSET 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 UPSET in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
UPSET can come back 108 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 UPSET; 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 UPSET
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to UPSET.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing UPSET:
Research on UPSET
Game-tree analysis and word research for UPSET, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with UPSET, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #2,343 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 UPSET can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, at or below the proven-optimal 3.66, 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
- UPSET sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 41 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 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 57 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with internal bodily sensation (3.9 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).