USURP
Yes, USURP was the Wordle answer on September 28, 2022 (Wordle #466).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /juˈsɝp//juːˈzɜːp/
- Verb
-
To seize and hold or use (powers, an office, a coat of arms, a right or copyright, etc) from another, without right (usually by illegitimate means).
- Verb
-
To take the place of someone or something else; to supplant.
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From Middle English usurpen, from Old French usurper, from Latin ūsūrpō.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
Two syllables, stress on the second syllable Say it YOOSURP.
Related meanings
Synonyms assume SEIZE
In a sentence
I didn't mean to usurp anybody.
Use USURP in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 85.6% 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: September 28, 2022 (#466).
See the full page for that puzzle: September 28, 2022 (#466).
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
Wordle Observatory · optional
Played this Wordle?
Add your result to the public totals · about 20 seconds
Wordle Observatory · optional
Played this Wordle?
Add your result to the public totals · about 20 seconds
Add your result and a quick difficulty rating to help explain how this puzzle played.
See the public dataThank you. Your result now helps describe this puzzle.
See what the public sample says →How USURP performs as a guess
USURP 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 70.0% of games, misses completely in 30.0%, and leaves about 344 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #11,794 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.80 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 USURP 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 USURP 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 USURP in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
USURP can come back 66 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 USURP; 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 USURP
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to USURP.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing USURP:
Research on USURP
Game-tree analysis and word research for USURP, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with USURP, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.86 guesses and ranks #12,972 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.98 guesses at best and is rank #5,788 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.80, at or below the proven-optimal 3.86, 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
- USURP sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.3 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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).