HUMAN

Meaning

A human being, whether man, woman or child.

“Humans share common ancestors with other apes.”

• verbTo behave as or become, or to cause to behave as or become, a human.
• adjective(notcomp) Of or belonging to the species Homo sapiens or its closest relatives.

HUMAN as a word-puzzle answer

HUMAN is a 5-letter word with 2 vowels (U, A) and 3 consonants (H, M, N). Every letter is distinct, so it rarely punishes a clean opening guess.

It leans on high-frequency letters (A, N), 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.

HUMAN by the numbers

Across the 1,734 curated answers in the Wordocious bank, A appears in 40% of answers (the 2nd most common letter), N appears in 24% of answers (the 9th most common letter), U appears in 18% of answers (the 12th most common letter). 7 other answers share the opening “HU-”, so two green tiles up front still leave real guessing to do.

Difficulty: 1/5 — very approachable, because its letters are common and no close neighbors compete with it.

Put it to use

Words like HUMAN 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.