LEVEL

Meaning

A tool for finding whether a surface is level, or for creating a horizontal or vertical line of reference.

“Hand me the level so I can tell if this is correctly installed.”

• verbTo adjust so as to make as flat or perpendicular to the ground as possible.
• adjectiveThe same height at all places; parallel to a flat ground.

LEVEL as a word-puzzle answer

LEVEL is a 5-letter word with 2 vowels (E, E) and 3 consonants (L, V, L). It repeats 2 letters, which is a classic trap — guessers who assume five distinct letters get stuck.

It leans on high-frequency letters (E), so a strong vowel-and-common-consonant opener tends to light up quickly. Watch for the less-common letter V — saving a guess to test it once the vowels are placed is usually the fastest route.

LEVEL by the numbers

Across the 1,734 curated answers in the Wordocious bank, E appears in 50% of answers (the 1st most common letter), L appears in 26% of answers (the 8th most common letter), V appears in 7% of answers (the 22nd most common letter). 16 other answers share the opening “LE-”, so two green tiles up front still leave real guessing to do.

Difficulty: 4/5 — tricky, because the repeated letter hides one position, and it uses at least one genuinely rare letter.

Near misses

One letter away in the answer bank: LEVER, REVEL. Each of these turns four tiles green against LEVEL — the classic endgame squeeze where spending a guess on the differing letter beats burning attempts on hope.

Put it to use

Words like LEVEL are exactly what the daily puzzles throw at you. Warm up in Practice, race the clock in the Daily Challenge, or study the best starting words before your next run. New to the multi-board modes? The mode guides cover all nine.