5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess B tier for first-turn info

WORST

Yes, WORST was the Wordle answer on December 4, 2023 (Wordle #898).

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /wɜːst//wɔːst//wɜɹst/

Adjective

superlative form of bad: most bad

“I think putting oil on a burn is the worst thing you can do.”

Adverb

superlative form of badly: most badly; least well.

“My sore leg hurts worst when it's cold and rainy.”

Noun

Something or someone that is the worst.

Verb

To make worse.

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Etymology

From Middle English worste, wurste, warste, werste, wirste, from Old English wierrest, from Proto-Germanic *wirsistaz, superlative form of *ubilaz (“bad, evil”); compare worse.

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

One syllable Say it WURST.

Rhymes with FIRST BURST HURST DURST WURST

Related meanings

Synonyms whip pip last bottom lowest

Opposites best

In a sentence

This one is the worst.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
This is the worst of all.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use WORST in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 93.0% of possible answers.

Open Solver with WORST Open Word Finder

Wordle status

A word can be a playable guess without being a possible answer.

Playable guess

Yes

Included in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.

Possible answer

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

Past Wordle answer

Used once

Past Wordle answer: December 4, 2023 (#898).

See the full page for that puzzle: December 4, 2023 (#898).

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

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How verification and withdrawal work

The answer word and timezone are used transiently to verify this page, then discarded. The receipt prevents duplicate submissions and lets this browser withdraw later; anyone with that token can withdraw, so keep browser-data exports private. Read the full privacy details.

WORST in Connections

1 recorded appearance in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.

How WORST performs as a guess

WORST 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 80.1% of games, misses completely in 19.9%, and leaves about 167 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,949 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.

All gray? Tap a tile to cycle gray → yellow → green.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

W___T W in the 1st position and T in the 5th position W__S_ W in the 1st position and S in the 4th position _O__T O in the 2nd position and T in the 5th position

Explore lists that match the beginning, ending or letters in WORST.

First-turn measures

All four describe WORST 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.

4.93 Entropy (bits)
167 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
93.0% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How WORST 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.

3.64 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#2,949 Rank among openers
Opening with WORST solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.64 average. It ranks #2,949 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
62
3 guesses
973
4 guesses
1,094
5 guesses
204
6 guesses
20

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
ORST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
80%
Green tile
34%
All gray
20%

Example solver route

R O A T E
T O R S O
W O R S T

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches WORST in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

WORST can come back 115 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

474 answers
263 answers
155 answers
127 answers
107 answers
97 answers
86 answers
83 answers
66 answers
61 answers
60 answers
58 answers
40 answers
36 answers
33 answers
33 answers
31 answers
28 answers
26 answers
25 answers
21 answers
20 answers
20 answers
18 answers
18 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
13 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

Base letter-value totals for WORST; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.

Scrabble

W4O1R1S1T1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.

Try next

LIANE LAIDE TITHE ALINE GLACE CADIE

Strategy after playing WORST

What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to WORST.

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing WORST:

20% chance
Suggested:
LIANE
11% chance
Suggested:
LAIDE
7% chance
Suggested:
LIANE

Follow-ups for common patterns

Ranked follow-up guesses for the 10 most common feedback patterns.

19.9% →
LIANE 6.21 bits
11.0% →
LAIDE 5.32 bits
6.5% →
LIANE 5.38 bits
5.3% →
TITHE 5.28 bits
4.5% →
ALINE 5.35 bits
4.1% →
GLACE 4.52 bits
3.6% →
CADIE 4.12 bits
3.5% →
LIANE 4.97 bits
2.8% →
LIANE 4.42 bits
2.6% →
CADRE 4.44 bits

Research on WORST

Game-tree analysis and word research for WORST, with an explanation for each figure.

Optimal play

Opening with WORST, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.65 guesses and ranks #1,773 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.77 guesses at best and is rank #661 of the 7,453 openers that can still 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
WORST sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 85 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 5, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 24 of 100. Raters found it difficult to picture.

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).