Highest estimated difficulty
RIPER 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: February 2023
Browse all 28 completed answers from February 2023, with a page for each puzzle's definition, difficulty and solver replay.
February 2023 in review
February 2023 is complete, with 28 puzzles and every date recorded. On the site's word-property scale it was an ordinary month. The highest estimated difficulty occurred on Feb 22, 2023 and the lowest on Feb 5, 2023; 12 answers doubled a letter and 7 answers used at least one of Q, Z, X, J, K, V or W.
The hardest and easiest answers
Lowest estimated difficulty
DANCE 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 Feb 5, 2023 to 5 on Feb 22, 2023. 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 ordinary month. February's 28 answers averaged 1.7 points on the estimated word-difficulty scale against 1.4 across the trailing six months, and a gap of 0.3 points sits inside the normal month-to-month spread of about ±0.3. At roughly thirty answers a month that is sampling noise, not a change in how answers were chosen. The difference does not support changing openers or strategy. The scale combines general-English corpus frequency with repeats, uncommon letters and missing vowels. It measures word properties, not player results.
Letters and patterns
12 of 28 answers doubled a letter, above the long-run archive rate of about 31%. That is the pattern that punishes never-repeat guessing: on a stalled board, testing a doubled letter should have come earlier than usual.
7 of 28 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: Feb 3 (#594) doubled T; Feb 6 (#597) doubled N; Feb 7 (#598) doubled P; Feb 8 (#599) doubled L; Feb 15 (#606) doubled A and S; Feb 17 (#608) doubled C; Feb 18 (#609) doubled A; Feb 19 (#610) doubled K; Feb 21 (#612) doubled D; Feb 22 (#613) doubled R; Feb 24 (#615) doubled R; Feb 25 (#616) doubled F.
Uncommon-letter days: Feb 2 (#593) used K; Feb 18 (#609) used V; Feb 19 (#610) used K; Feb 20 (#611) used W; Feb 23 (#614) used V; Feb 27 (#618) used W; Feb 28 (#619) 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 28, 2023 | Tuesday | #619 → | POLKA | Moderate |
| Feb 27, 2023 | Monday | #618 → | WORSE | Moderate |
| Feb 26, 2023 | Sunday | #617 → | SYRUP | Moderate |
| Feb 25, 2023 | Saturday | #616 → | FIFTY | Tricky |
| Feb 24, 2023 | Friday | #615 → | ARBOR | Moderate |
| Feb 23, 2023 | Thursday | #614 → | VAGUE | Moderate |
| Feb 22, 2023 | Wednesday | #613 → | RIPER | Brutal |
| Feb 21, 2023 | Tuesday | #612 → | RUDDY | Tricky |
| Feb 20, 2023 | Monday | #611 → | SWEAT | Moderate |
| Feb 19, 2023 | Sunday | #610 → | KIOSK | Hard |
| Feb 18, 2023 | Saturday | #609 → | AVAIL | Tricky |
| Feb 17, 2023 | Friday | #608 → | CACHE | Moderate |
| Feb 16, 2023 | Thursday | #607 → | MAGIC | Easy |
| Feb 15, 2023 | Wednesday | #606 → | SALSA | Tricky |
| Feb 14, 2023 | Tuesday | #605 → | SOUND | Easy |
| Feb 13, 2023 | Monday | #604 → | USAGE | Easy |
| Feb 12, 2023 | Sunday | #603 → | GIANT | Easy |
| Feb 11, 2023 | Saturday | #602 → | DEBUG | Tricky |
| Feb 10, 2023 | Friday | #601 → | HEADY | Tricky |
| Feb 9, 2023 | Thursday | #600 → | STAGE | Easy |
| Feb 8, 2023 | Wednesday | #599 → | FLAIL | Tricky |
| Feb 7, 2023 | Tuesday | #598 → | APPLE | Moderate |
| Feb 6, 2023 | Monday | #597 → | NINTH | Tricky |
| Feb 5, 2023 | Sunday | #596 → | DANCE | Easy |
| Feb 4, 2023 | Saturday | #595 → | UNLIT | Hard |
| Feb 3, 2023 | Friday | #594 → | TASTY | Tricky |
| Feb 2, 2023 | Thursday | #593 → | SHIRK | Tricky |
| Feb 1, 2023 | Wednesday | #592 → | SCOLD | Tricky |
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 6
- Moderate 8
- Tricky 11
- Hard 2
- Brutal 1