YOUNG
Yes, YOUNG was the Wordle answer on December 5, 2023 (Wordle #899).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /jʌŋ//jʊŋɡ//jʊŋ/
- Adjective
-
In the early part of growth or life; born not long ago.
“a lamb is a young sheep”
- Adjective
-
At an early stage of existence or development; having recently come into existence.
“the age of space travel is still young”
- Noun
-
Offspring, especially the immature offspring of animals.
“The lion caught a gnu to feed its young.”
- Verb
-
To become or seem to become younger.
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
* As an English, Scottish, and northern Irish surname, from the adjective young, used to distinguish a younger brother or son. This sense is comparable to the surnames le Yunge, German Jong and Junk, Dutch Jong and de Jongh, French Lejeune and LaJeunesse, assimilated from Dion and Guyon.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
One syllable Say it YUHNG.
Rhymes with AMONG SWUNG FLUNG STUNG CLUNG
Related meanings
Synonyms new YOUTH offspring immature youthful little
Opposites old aged late experienced
In a sentence
I was young at the time.
The man is not young.
Use YOUNG in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 88.0% 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: December 5, 2023 (#899).
See the full page for that puzzle: December 5, 2023 (#899).
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 →YOUNG in Connections
2 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.
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· Puzzle #676
Reveal this appearance's category
YOUNG appeared in BASEBALL GREATS (purple group).
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· Puzzle #445
Reveal this appearance's category
YOUNG appeared in SECOND NAMES IN COMPANIES WITH AMPERSANDS (purple group).
How YOUNG performs as a guess
YOUNG 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 69.7% of games, misses completely in 30.3%, and leaves about 286 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,343 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.73 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 YOUNG 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 YOUNG 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 YOUNG in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
YOUNG can come back 73 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 YOUNG; 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 YOUNG
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to YOUNG.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing YOUNG:
Research on YOUNG
Game-tree analysis and word research for YOUNG, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with YOUNG, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.77 guesses and ranks #9,450 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 YOUNG can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.73, at or below the proven-optimal 3.77, 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
- YOUNG sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 269 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: 57 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.1 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); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).