WATCH
Yes, WATCH was the Wordle answer on March 11, 2022 (Wordle #265).
As an opener, it rules out about 89.5% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈwɒt͡ʃ//ˈwɔt͡ʃ//ˈwɑt͡ʃ/
- Noun
-
A portable or wearable timepiece.
“More people today carry a watch on their wrists than in their pockets; some people today don't use a watch at all, because their smartphone serves the purpose well enough.”
- Noun
-
The act of guarding and observing someone or something.
- Verb
-
To look at, see, or view for a period of time.
“Watching the clock will not make time go faster.”
- Verb
-
To observe over a period of time; to notice or pay attention.
“Watch this!”
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: March 11, 2022 (#265).
See the full page for that puzzle: March 11, 2022 (#265).
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 WATCH performs as a guess
WATCH 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 73.6% of games, misses completely in 26.4%, and leaves about 249 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,512 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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 WATCH 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 WATCH 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 WATCH in 5 guesses. See the trap-family guide for similar endgames.
Feedback distribution
WATCH can come back 93 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 WATCH; 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 WATCH
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to WATCH.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing WATCH:
Research on WATCH
Game-tree analysis and word research for WATCH, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with WATCH, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.74 guesses and ranks #7,263 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 WATCH can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, at or below the proven-optimal 3.74, 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, WATCH is a kind of instrument or shift.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- WATCH sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 219 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 A1); among the first words English learners study.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 5, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 78 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.8 of 5).
In a sentence
It is not a watch.
You have to watch out.
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).