WATER
Yes, WATER was the Wordle answer on July 23, 2025 (Wordle #1495).
As an opener, it rules out about 95.4% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈwɔ.tɚ/[ˈwɔ.ɾɚ]/ˈwɑ.tɚ/
- Noun
-
An inorganic compound (of molecular formula H₂O) found at room temperature and pressure as a clear liquid; it is present naturally as rain, and found in rivers, lakes and seas; its solid form is ice and its gaseous form is steam.
“By the action of electricity, the water was resolved into its two parts, oxygen and hydrogen.”
- Noun
-
The aforementioned liquid, considered one of the Classical elements or basic elements of alchemy.
“He showed me the river of living water, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God.”
- Verb
-
To pour water into the soil surrounding (plants).
- Verb
-
To wet or supply with water; to moisten; to overflow with water; to irrigate.
Alternative forms: wahter, wahtuh
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: July 23, 2025 (#1495).
See the full page for that puzzle: July 23, 2025 (#1495).
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 WATER performs as a guess
WATER 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 87.0% of games, misses completely in 13.0%, and leaves about 108 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,883 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 WATER 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 WATER 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 WATER in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
WATER can come back 117 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 WATER; 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 WATER
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to WATER.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing WATER:
Research on WATER
Game-tree analysis and word research for WATER, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with WATER, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.65 guesses and ranks #1,600 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 WATER can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, at or below the proven-optimal 3.65, 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 WAWTUR.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, WATER is a kind of liquid or thing.
Synonyms piss pee URINE
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- WATER sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 331 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 2, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 98 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.2 of 5).
In a sentence
I was in the water.
He was in the water.
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).