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

This page always keeps Wordle #856 for October 23, 2023. 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 #856

What kind of word

Wiktionary lists it as a noun.

What it means

“A frequency or rate.”

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

Fill the gap

“10 calls per hour isn't a bad start, but we'll need to up the _____ if we want to reach our target of selling insurance policies.”

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 M.

How it ends

Ends in O.

Reveal the answer and explanation

The answer to Wordle #856 was

TEMPO: A frequency or rate.

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.

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: 47/100 (middle of the pack). This is a percentile among past puzzles under the same strategy: 0 is easiest and 100 is hardest for the solver.

130 Possible answers after CRANE
73 Possible answers after SLATE
201 Possible answers after ADIEU
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 #856, measured

This section compares TEMPO'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

47/100

This score is a percentile, not an opinion. Under the site's fixed solver settings, TEMPO measured harder for the solver than about 47% of all 1,952 recorded answers to date. Its rating is middle of the pack. 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

AUDIO left the fewest candidates: its first-guess feedback left 13 of the 2,384 words in the site's working answer pool. At the other end, ADIEU left 201 candidates, about 15 times as many.

First-guess feedback each opener would have received against TEMPO, and how many answer-pool words would still match it
OpenerFirst-guess feedbackAnswers still possible
AUDIO AUDIO 13
TARSE TARSE 14
TRACE TRACE 15
SALET SALET 53
STARE STARE 56
SLATE SLATE 73
ARISE ARISE 124
RAISE RAISE 124
CRANE CRANE 130
ADIEU ADIEU 201

“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 TEMPO.

The solver reaches the answer in 3 guesses.

Common questions

What was the Wordle answer for October 23, 2023?
The Wordle answer for October 23, 2023 (puzzle #856) was TEMPO.
What does TEMPO mean?
TEMPO: A frequency or rate.
Why was Wordle #856 tricky?
TEMPO 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.

Keep solving and playing