SMALL

Meaning

Any part of something that is smaller or slimmer than the rest, now usually with anatomical reference to the back.

• verbTo make little or less.
• adjectiveNot large or big; insignificant; few in number.
• adverbIn a small fashion.

SMALL as a word-puzzle answer

SMALL is a 5-letter word with 1 vowel (A) and 4 consonants (S, M, L, L). It repeats 1 letter, which is a classic trap — guessers who assume five distinct letters get stuck.

It leans on high-frequency letters (S, A), so a strong vowel-and-common-consonant opener tends to light up quickly. There are no rare letters here, so it is a fair, mid-difficulty answer for the daily Classic puzzle.

SMALL by the numbers

Across the 1,734 curated answers in the Wordocious bank, A appears in 40% of answers (the 2nd most common letter), S appears in 28% of answers (the 7th most common letter), L appears in 26% of answers (the 8th most common letter). 9 other answers share the opening “SM-”, so two green tiles up front still leave real guessing to do.

Difficulty: 3/5 — moderate, because the repeated letter hides one position.

Near misses

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

Put it to use

Words like SMALL 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.