By FiveLetterWords · Guide updated . The puzzle date is shown separately.

This page always keeps Wordle #471 for October 3, 2022. Check that number against your game before opening a hint. The answer remains below a separate reveal.

Wordle changes at midnight in your local time zone. For the current local puzzle, use today’s hints. This dated page keeps the same puzzle when the day changes.

Our independent hints use the verified puzzle answer. Play the official game at The New York Times.

Hints for Wordle #471

What kind of word

Wiktionary lists it as a noun.

What it means

“A bump left on the skin after having been stung.”

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

Fill the gap

“Look at this nasty hornet _____: it's turned blue!”

Source: Wiktionary contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentence selected from Wiktionary, with the answer removed.

The middle letter

The middle letter is I.

How it ends

Ends in G.

Reveal the answer and explanation

The answer to Wordle #471 was

STING: A bump left on the skin after having been stung.

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.

The word rating describes familiarity and letter features. The solver score below measures how a fixed strategy handles the puzzle; an unusual word can still be easy for that strategy.

Compare past puzzle difficulty →

How difficult was it for the solver?

Solver pressure: 23/100 (easier for the solver). This is a percentile among past puzzles under the same strategy: 0 is easiest and 100 is hardest for the solver.

58 Possible answers after CRANE
39 Possible answers after SLATE
105 Possible answers after ADIEU
4 Words in the S_ING 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 #471, measured

This section compares STING'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

23/100

This score is a percentile, not an opinion. Under the site's fixed solver settings, STING measured harder for the solver than about 23% of all 1,952 recorded answers to date. Its rating is easier for the solver. CRANE, SLATE and ADIEU leave about 67.3 possible answers; it has a 4-word S_ING 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

STARE left the fewest candidates: its first-guess feedback left 22 of the 2,384 words in the site's working answer pool. At the other end, AUDIO left 275 candidates, about 12 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 STING, and how many answer-pool words would still match it
OpenerFirst-guess feedbackAnswers still possible
STARE STARE 22
SALET SALET 26
ARISE ARISE 30
RAISE RAISE 30
SLATE SLATE 39
TARSE TARSE 47
CRANE CRANE 58
ADIEU ADIEU 105
TRACE TRACE 115
AUDIO AUDIO 275

“Answers still possible” counts the words in the site's 2,384-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 12
4 10
5 Suppressed
6 Suppressed
X Suppressed

The bars pool all 40 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 STING.

The solver reaches the answer in 3 guesses.

Common questions

What was the Wordle answer for October 3, 2022?
The Wordle answer for October 3, 2022 (puzzle #471) was STING.
What does STING mean?
STING: A bump left on the skin after having been stung.
Why was Wordle #471 tricky?
STING is rated moderate for estimated word difficulty. Why it may be difficult: only one vowel.

Keep solving and playing