USUAL
Yes, USUAL was the Wordle answer on December 14, 2022 (Wordle #543).
As an opener, it rules out about 89.6% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈjuː.ʒʊəl//ˈju.ʒuəl//ˈju.ʒ(w)əl/
- Adjective
-
Most commonly occurring; typical.
“The preference of a boy to a girl is a usual occurrence in some parts of China.”
- Noun
-
The typical state of something, or something that is typical.
- Noun
-
A specific good or service (e.g. a drink) that someone typically orders.
“I'll just have the usual.”
Alternative forms: uzhe, uzh, yoozh
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 14, 2022 (#543).
See the full page for that puzzle: December 14, 2022 (#543).
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 USUAL performs as a guess
USUAL 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 76.8% of games, misses completely in 23.2%, and leaves about 247 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,030 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.81 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 USUAL 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 USUAL 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 USUAL in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
USUAL can come back 65 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 USUAL; 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 USUAL
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to USUAL.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing USUAL:
Research on USUAL
Game-tree analysis and word research for USUAL, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with USUAL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.85 guesses and ranks #12,556 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.99 guesses at best and is rank #6,047 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.81, at or below the proven-optimal 3.85, 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
Three syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it YOOZHUHWUHL.
Related meanings
Synonyms common regular familiar chronic accustomed customary
Opposites unusual strange
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- USUAL sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 42 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: 25 of 100. Raters found it difficult to picture.
In a sentence
You were right as usual.
Is it business as usual?
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).