The answer to Wordle #1,296 was

CYBER: Of, or having to do with, the Internet; alternative form of cyber-.

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 #1,296 scores 70/100 for solver difficulty (tricky).

7 Possible answers after CRANE
170 Possible answers after SLATE
128 Possible answers after ADIEU
4 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 #1,296, measured

This section compares CYBER'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

70/100

This score is a percentile, not an opinion. Under the site's fixed solver settings, CYBER measured harder for the solver than about 70% of all 1,906 recorded answers to date. Its rating is tricky. The example solver route takes four turns; CRANE, SLATE and ADIEU leave a large group.

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

CRANE left the fewest candidates: its first-guess feedback left 7 of the 2,374 words in the site's working answer pool. At the other end, AUDIO left 193 candidates, about 28 times as many. AUDIO came back all gray. None of its letters appear in CYBER. 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 CYBER, and how many answer-pool words would still match it
OpenerFirst-guess feedbackAnswers still possible
CRANE CRANE 7
TRACE TRACE 14
ARISE ARISE 102
RAISE RAISE 104
SALET SALET 108
TARSE TARSE 116
STARE STARE 122
ADIEU ADIEU 128
SLATE SLATE 170
AUDIO AUDIO 193

“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 CYBER.

The solver reaches the answer in 4 guesses.

Common questions

What was the Wordle answer for January 5, 2025?
The Wordle answer for January 5, 2025 (puzzle #1296) was CYBER.
What does CYBER mean?
CYBER: Of, or having to do with, the Internet; alternative form of cyber-.
Why was Wordle #1296 tricky?
CYBER is rated moderate for estimated word difficulty. Why it may be difficult: only one vowel.

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