The answer to Wordle #1,189 was

SMOKE: The visible vapor/vapour, gases, and fine particles given off by burning or smoldering material.

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: uncommon letters.

Compare past puzzle difficulty →

How difficult was it for the solver?

In a replay of past puzzles, Wordle #1,189 scores 44/100 for solver difficulty (middle of the pack).

105 Possible answers after CRANE
33 Possible answers after SLATE
199 Possible answers after ADIEU
3 Words in the S_OKE family
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 #1,189, measured

This section compares SMOKE'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

44/100

This score is a percentile, not an opinion. Under the site's fixed solver settings, SMOKE measured harder for the solver than about 44% of all 1,906 recorded answers to date. Its rating is middle of the pack. CRANE, SLATE and ADIEU leave a large group; it has a 3-word S_OKE family.

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

ARISE left the fewest candidates: its first-guess feedback left 18 of the 2,374 words in the site's working answer pool. At the other end, AUDIO left 286 candidates, about 16 times as many. 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 SMOKE, and how many answer-pool words would still match it
OpenerFirst-guess feedbackAnswers still possible
ARISE ARISE 18
RAISE RAISE 18
STARE STARE 28
TARSE TARSE 29
SLATE SLATE 33
SALET SALET 38
CRANE CRANE 105
TRACE TRACE 108
ADIEU ADIEU 199
AUDIO AUDIO 286

“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 SMOKE.

The solver reaches the answer in 3 guesses.

Common questions

What was the Wordle answer for September 20, 2024?
The Wordle answer for September 20, 2024 (puzzle #1189) was SMOKE.
What does SMOKE mean?
SMOKE: The visible vapor/vapour, gases, and fine particles given off by burning or smoldering material.
Why was Wordle #1189 tricky?
SMOKE is rated moderate for estimated word difficulty. Why it may be difficult: uncommon letters.

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