Wordle #544 hints & answer for December 15, 2022
· Thursday
This page always keeps Wordle #544 for December 15, 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 #544
What kind of word
Wiktionary lists it as a noun, and also as an adjective.
What it means
“Someone or something with similar claims of quality or distinction as another.”
Source: Wiktionary contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected and lightly formatted from Wiktionary; long entries may be shortened.
Fill the gap
“Chris is my biggest _____ in the 400-metre race.”
Source: Wiktionary contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentence selected from Wiktionary, with the answer removed.
How it starts
Begins with R.
The middle letter
The middle letter is V.
Reveal the answer and explanation
The answer to Wordle #544 was
RIVAL: A competitor (person, team, company, etc.) with the same goal as another, or striving to attain the same thing. Defeating a rival may be a primary or necessary goal of a competitor.
Source: Wiktionary contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected and lightly formatted from Wiktionary; long entries may be shortened.
Why it may be difficult: uncommon letters.
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.
How difficult was it for the solver?
Solver pressure: 15/100 (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.
This compares past puzzles under the same solver settings; it does not measure how players performed. Compare more puzzles →
Wordle #544, measured
This section compares RIVAL'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
This score is a percentile, not an opinion. Under the site's fixed solver settings, RIVAL measured harder for the solver than about 15% of all 1,952 recorded answers to date. Its rating is easier for the solver. CRANE, SLATE and ADIEU leave about 63 possible answers.
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
RAISE left the fewest candidates: its first-guess feedback left 1 of the 2,384 words in the site's working answer pool. At the other end, TARSE left 71 candidates, about 71 times as many.
| Opener | First-guess feedback | Answers still possible |
|---|---|---|
| RAISE | RAISE | 1 |
| ARISE | ARISE | 17 |
| AUDIO | AUDIO | 45 |
| SLATE | SLATE | 59 |
| ADIEU | ADIEU | 62 |
| TRACE | TRACE | 62 |
| STARE | STARE | 65 |
| CRANE | CRANE | 68 |
| SALET | SALET | 69 |
| TARSE | TARSE | 71 |
“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 →
See the solver's route to RIVAL → It shows which guesses reduced the candidate pool on each turn.
Solver replay
One route our solver takes from its usual opening word to RIVAL.
The solver reaches the answer in 3 guesses.
Common questions
- What was the Wordle answer for December 15, 2022?
- The Wordle answer for December 15, 2022 (puzzle #544) was RIVAL.
- What does RIVAL mean?
- RIVAL: A competitor (person, team, company, etc.) with the same goal as another, or striving to attain the same thing. Defeating a rival may be a primary or necessary goal of a competitor.
- Why was Wordle #544 tricky?
- RIVAL is rated moderate for estimated word difficulty. Why it may be difficult: uncommon letters.