The answer to Wordle #228 was

MOIST: Characterized by the presence of moisture; not dry; slightly wet; damp.

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

Word difficulty: Easy

Why it may be easier: five different letters, at least two vowels and none of Q, Z, X, J, K, V or W.

Compare past puzzle difficulty →

How difficult was it for the solver?

In a replay of past puzzles, Wordle #228 scores 54/100 for solver difficulty (middle of the pack).

273 Possible answers after CRANE
24 Possible answers after SLATE
105 Possible answers after ADIEU
4 Words in the _OIST 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 #228, measured

This section compares MOIST'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

54/100

This score is a percentile, not an opinion. Under the site's fixed solver settings, MOIST measured harder for the solver than about 54% of all 1,907 recorded answers to date. Its rating is middle of the pack. CRANE, SLATE and ADIEU leave a large group; it has a 4-word _OIST 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

TARSE left the fewest candidates: its first-guess feedback left 8 of the 2,374 words in the site's working answer pool. At the other end, CRANE left 273 candidates, about 34 times as many. CRANE came back all gray. None of its letters appear in MOIST. 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 MOIST, and how many answer-pool words would still match it
OpenerFirst-guess feedbackAnswers still possible
TARSE TARSE 8
ARISE ARISE 9
RAISE RAISE 9
STARE STARE 17
SALET SALET 20
SLATE SLATE 24
AUDIO AUDIO 33
ADIEU ADIEU 105
TRACE TRACE 115
CRANE CRANE 273

“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 MOIST.

The solver reaches the answer in 3 guesses.

Common questions

What was the Wordle answer for February 2, 2022?
The Wordle answer for February 2, 2022 (puzzle #228) was MOIST.
What does MOIST mean?
MOIST: Characterized by the presence of moisture; not dry; slightly wet; damp.
Why was Wordle #228 tricky?
MOIST is rated easy for estimated word difficulty. Why it may be easier: five different letters, at least two vowels and none of Q, Z, X, J, K, V or W.

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