The answer to Wordle #946 was

NORTH: The direction towards the pole to the left-hand side of someone facing east, specifically 0°, or (on another celestial object) the direction towards the pole lying on the northern side of the invariable plane.

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.

Compare past puzzle difficulty →

How difficult was it for the solver?

In a replay of past puzzles, Wordle #946 scores 23/100 for solver difficulty (easier for the solver).

13 Possible answers after CRANE
38 Possible answers after SLATE
165 Possible answers after ADIEU
3 Words in the _ORTH 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 #946, measured

This section compares NORTH'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, NORTH measured harder for the solver than about 23% of all 1,906 recorded answers to date. Its rating is easier for the solver. CRANE, SLATE and ADIEU leave about 72 possible answers; it has a 3-word _ORTH 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 9 of the 2,374 words in the site's working answer pool. At the other end, AUDIO left 286 candidates, about 32 times as many. ADIEU came back all gray. None of its letters appear in NORTH. 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 NORTH, and how many answer-pool words would still match it
OpenerFirst-guess feedbackAnswers still possible
TARSE TARSE 9
CRANE CRANE 13
TRACE TRACE 32
SLATE SLATE 38
STARE STARE 43
ARISE ARISE 65
SALET SALET 88
RAISE RAISE 103
ADIEU ADIEU 165
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 NORTH.

The solver reaches the answer in 3 guesses.

Common questions

What was the Wordle answer for January 21, 2024?
The Wordle answer for January 21, 2024 (puzzle #946) was NORTH.
What does NORTH mean?
NORTH: The direction towards the pole to the left-hand side of someone facing east, specifically 0°, or (on another celestial object) the direction towards the pole lying on the northern side of the invariable plane.
Why was Wordle #946 tricky?
NORTH is rated moderate for estimated word difficulty. Why it may be difficult: only one vowel.

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