The answer to Wordle #943 was

STOLE: simple past of steal

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 #943 scores 46/100 for solver difficulty (middle of the pack).

105 Possible answers after CRANE
2 Possible answers after SLATE
199 Possible answers after ADIEU
5 Words in the STO_E 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 #943, measured

This section compares STOLE'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

46/100

This score is a percentile, not an opinion. Under the site's fixed solver settings, STOLE measured harder for the solver than about 46% of all 1,907 recorded answers to date. Its rating is middle of the pack. CRANE, SLATE and ADIEU leave a large group; it sits in a 5-word STO_E 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

SALET left the fewest candidates: its first-guess feedback left 2 of the 2,374 words in the site's working answer pool. At the other end, AUDIO left 286 candidates, about 143 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 STOLE, and how many answer-pool words would still match it
OpenerFirst-guess feedbackAnswers still possible
SALET SALET 2
SLATE SLATE 2
STARE STARE 5
TARSE TARSE 9
ARISE ARISE 18
RAISE RAISE 18
TRACE TRACE 20
CRANE CRANE 105
ADIEU ADIEU 199
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 STOLE.

The solver reaches the answer in 3 guesses.

Common questions

What was the Wordle answer for January 18, 2024?
The Wordle answer for January 18, 2024 (puzzle #943) was STOLE.
What does STOLE mean?
STOLE: simple past of steal
Why was Wordle #943 tricky?
STOLE 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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