The answer to Wordle #1,173 was

STERN: Having a hardness and severity of nature or manner.

Source: Wiktionary contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected and lightly formatted from Wiktionary; long entries may be shortened.

Word difficulty: Moderate

Why it may be difficult: only one vowel.

Compare past puzzle difficulty →

How difficult was it for the solver?

In a replay of past puzzles, Wordle #1,173 scores 24/100 for solver difficulty (easier for the solver).

28 Possible answers after CRANE
11 Possible answers after SLATE
199 Possible answers after ADIEU
3 Guesses in the solver replay

This compares past puzzles under the same solver settings; it does not measure how players performed. Compare more puzzles →

Wordle #1,173, measured

This section compares STERN's solver-difficulty percentile, first-guess results for ten familiar openers, and opt-in player reports. Each number identifies its dataset.

Solver difficulty, as a percentile

24/100

This score is a percentile, not an opinion. Under the site's fixed solver settings, STERN measured harder for the solver than about 24% of all 1,907 recorded answers to date. Its rating is easier for the solver. CRANE, SLATE and ADIEU leave about 79.3 possible answers.

Solver pressure ranks the answer within the pool; it does not measure player performance. The opener table compares first-guess results, and the contributed ratings report player results.

CRANE, SLATE and ADIEU benchmark

STARE left the fewest candidates: its first-guess feedback left 1 of the 2,374 words in the site's working answer pool. At the other end, ADIEU left 199 candidates, about 199 times as many. AUDIO came back all gray. None of its letters appear in STERN. The vowel-heavy probes ADIEU and AUDIO revealed comparatively little here. Vowel coverage helps only when the answer's vowels are still in doubt.

First-guess feedback each opener would have received against STERN, and how many answer-pool words would still match it
OpenerFirst-guess feedbackAnswers still possible
STARE STARE 1
TARSE TARSE 4
SALET SALET 11
SLATE SLATE 11
RAISE RAISE 19
ARISE ARISE 21
CRANE CRANE 28
TRACE TRACE 29
AUDIO AUDIO 193
ADIEU ADIEU 199

“Answers still possible” counts the words in the site's 2,374-word working answer pool whose feedback would match that opener exactly. This is pattern arithmetic, not a simulation. A smaller number means the opener left fewer possible answers after the first guess. It does not describe later turns.

Contributed player ratings

Not enough contributed games to publish player figures for this puzzle. Per-puzzle numbers appear only after at least 10 opt-in games arrive. See how the Observatory collects and publishes player data →

What did you get?

Tap your result to compare it with contributed games. Your choice stays in this browser and is not sent anywhere.

1 Suppressed
2 Suppressed
3 Suppressed
4 Suppressed
5 Suppressed
6 Suppressed
X Suppressed

The bars pool all 26 contributed games across every completed puzzle. The Observatory does not publish per-puzzle guess distributions below its sample threshold, so this is the broadest available comparison. “Suppressed” marks a low-count cell.

Solver replay

One route our solver takes from its usual opening word to STERN.

The solver reaches the answer in 3 guesses.

Common questions

What was the Wordle answer for September 4, 2024?
The Wordle answer for September 4, 2024 (puzzle #1173) was STERN.
What does STERN mean?
STERN: Having a hardness and severity of nature or manner.
Why was Wordle #1173 tricky?
STERN is rated moderate for estimated word difficulty. Why it may be difficult: only one vowel.

Keep solving and playing