Highest estimated difficulty
EXULT appears less than once per million words in the corpus-based frequency data, so familiarity alone sets a Brutal floor. Its letters add points too, but corpus frequency sets the minimum rating.
Past Answers
Wordle Answers: December 2021
Browse all 31 completed answers from December 2021, with a page for each puzzle's definition, difficulty and solver replay.
December 2021 in review
December 2021 is complete, with 31 puzzles and every date recorded. On the site's word-property scale it was an unusually gentle one. The highest estimated difficulty occurred on Dec 4, 2021 and the lowest on Dec 2, 2021; 4 answers doubled a letter and 10 answers used at least one of Q, Z, X, J, K, V or W.
The hardest and easiest answers
Lowest estimated difficulty
CHEAT has five distinct letters, 2 vowels and no uncommon letters. Common first guesses therefore test many of its letters.
The spread ran from 0 points on Dec 2, 2021 to 5 on Dec 4, 2021. Both numbers describe single words, not a sequence. A hard day and an easy one can occur in the same week, so the trend line below compares whole months rather than individual days.
The difficulty trend
An unusually gentle month by the estimate. December's 31 answers averaged 1.0 points against 1.6 across the trailing six months, 0.6 points below, outside the normal month-to-month spread of about ±0.3. Fewer answers with low corpus frequency, repeats, uncommon letters or few vowels appeared than usual. The scale combines general-English corpus frequency with repeats, uncommon letters and missing vowels. It measures word properties, not player results.
Letters and patterns
4 of 31 answers doubled a letter, below the long-run archive rate of about 31%. Fewer than usual, so plain no-repeat guessing went largely unpunished.
10 of 31 answers used at least one of Q, Z, X, J, K, V or W, in line with the long-run archive rate of about 28%. Standard openers test these letters less often, so the difficulty scale adds a penalty for each one.
No day reused an earlier answer: every puzzle this month was a first appearance in the site's recorded history. Repeats do happen, so a word having been a solution before is still no reason to drop it from your guesses.
Double-letter days: Dec 11 (#175) doubled C; Dec 12 (#176) doubled S; Dec 27 (#191) doubled R; Dec 30 (#194) doubled L.
Uncommon-letter days: Dec 1 (#165) used V; Dec 4 (#168) used X; Dec 8 (#172) used K; Dec 10 (#174) used V; Dec 14 (#178) used V; Dec 20 (#184) used K; Dec 21 (#185) used K; Dec 22 (#186) used Z; Dec 24 (#188) used W; Dec 25 (#189) used K.
How players fared
No day from this month has reached the Observatory's minimum public sample of 10 opt-in games, so no crowd numbers appear. The gate is deliberate: below it, a handful of results could stand in for a crowd and misrepresent a day.
Answer words are shown only for completed puzzles. Open a puzzle for its definition, difficulty and solver replay.
| Date | Day | Puzzle | Answer | Word difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 31, 2021 | Friday | #195 → | UNIFY | Easy |
| Dec 30, 2021 | Thursday | #194 → | TROLL | Tricky |
| Dec 29, 2021 | Wednesday | #193 → | TAPIR | Hard |
| Dec 28, 2021 | Tuesday | #192 → | ASIDE | Easy |
| Dec 27, 2021 | Monday | #191 → | FERRY | Tricky |
| Dec 26, 2021 | Sunday | #190 → | ACUTE Used 2 times | Easy |
| Dec 25, 2021 | Saturday | #189 → | PICKY | Tricky |
| Dec 24, 2021 | Friday | #188 → | WEARY | Moderate |
| Dec 23, 2021 | Thursday | #187 → | GRIPE Used 2 times | Tricky |
| Dec 22, 2021 | Wednesday | #186 → | CRAZE | Moderate |
| Dec 21, 2021 | Tuesday | #185 → | PLUCK | Tricky |
| Dec 20, 2021 | Monday | #184 → | BRAKE | Moderate |
| Dec 19, 2021 | Sunday | #183 → | BATON Used 2 times | Easy |
| Dec 18, 2021 | Saturday | #182 → | CHAMP | Moderate |
| Dec 17, 2021 | Friday | #181 → | PEACH | Easy |
| Dec 16, 2021 | Thursday | #180 → | USING | Easy |
| Dec 15, 2021 | Wednesday | #179 → | TRACE Used 2 times | Easy |
| Dec 14, 2021 | Tuesday | #178 → | VITAL | Moderate |
| Dec 13, 2021 | Monday | #177 → | SONIC | Easy |
| Dec 12, 2021 | Sunday | #176 → | MASSE | Moderate |
| Dec 11, 2021 | Saturday | #175 → | CONIC | Hard |
| Dec 10, 2021 | Friday | #174 → | VIRAL | Moderate |
| Dec 9, 2021 | Thursday | #173 → | RHINO | Easy |
| Dec 8, 2021 | Wednesday | #172 → | BREAK Used 2 times | Moderate |
| Dec 7, 2021 | Tuesday | #171 → | TRIAD | Easy |
| Dec 6, 2021 | Monday | #170 → | EPOCH | Easy |
| Dec 5, 2021 | Sunday | #169 → | USHER | Easy |
| Dec 4, 2021 | Saturday | #168 → | EXULT | Brutal |
| Dec 3, 2021 | Friday | #167 → | GRIME | Easy |
| Dec 2, 2021 | Thursday | #166 → | CHEAT | Easy |
| Dec 1, 2021 | Wednesday | #165 → | SOLVE | Moderate |
On this day in Wordle
Past answers published on September 7 in earlier years. Every puzzle listed here is complete, so this section does not spoil a live game.
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1 year ago
Nothing unusual appears in the letters: all five are distinct and familiar. Ordinary letter coverage works well on words like this.
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2 years ago
Nothing unusual appears in the letters: all five are distinct and familiar. Ordinary letter coverage works well on words like this.
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3 years ago
The doubled L raises the difficulty. Once a letter shows up yellow or green, few players try it a second time unprompted.
The Easy-to-Brutal badge combines general-English corpus frequency with repeats, uncommon letters and vowel count. It estimates word difficulty, not player results. Dates come from the site's recorded answer history.
Archive totals
Estimated word difficulty combines wordfreq corpus frequency with repeats, uncommon letters and vowel count. It measures word properties, not player results. Compare solver difficulty →
- Easy 14
- Moderate 9
- Tricky 5
- Hard 2
- Brutal 1