The answer to Wordle #1,438 was

SPORT: Any activity that uses physical exertion or skills competitively under a set of rules that is not based on aesthetics.

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 #1,438 scores 72/100 for solver difficulty (tricky).

91 Possible answers after CRANE
39 Possible answers after SLATE
165 Possible answers after ADIEU
3 Words in the S_ORT family
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 #1,438, measured

This section compares SPORT'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

72/100

This score is a percentile, not an opinion. Under the site's fixed solver settings, SPORT measured harder for the solver than about 72% of all 1,907 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

STARE left the fewest candidates: its first-guess feedback left 6 of the 2,374 words in the site's working answer pool. At the other end, AUDIO left 286 candidates, about 48 times as many. ADIEU came back all gray. None of its letters appear in SPORT. 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 SPORT, and how many answer-pool words would still match it
OpenerFirst-guess feedbackAnswers still possible
STARE STARE 6
TARSE TARSE 10
SALET SALET 19
RAISE RAISE 24
ARISE ARISE 25
TRACE TRACE 32
SLATE SLATE 39
CRANE CRANE 91
ADIEU ADIEU 165
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 SPORT.

The solver reaches the answer in 4 guesses.

Common questions

What was the Wordle answer for May 27, 2025?
The Wordle answer for May 27, 2025 (puzzle #1438) was SPORT.
What does SPORT mean?
SPORT: Any activity that uses physical exertion or skills competitively under a set of rules that is not based on aesthetics.
Why was Wordle #1438 tricky?
SPORT is rated moderate for estimated word difficulty. Why it may be difficult: only one vowel.

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