Word of the Day · Sunday, November 26, 2023
/ˈɛb.ən.i/noun
A hard, dense, deep black wood from various subtropical and tropical trees, especially of the genus Diospyros.
EBONY is a 5-letter word with 2 vowels (E, O) and 3 consonants (B, N, Y). Every letter is distinct, so it rarely punishes a clean opening guess.
It leans on high-frequency letters (E, O, 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.
Across the 1,734 curated answers in the Wordocious bank, E appears in 50% of answers (the 1st most common letter), O appears in 30% of answers (the 5th most common letter), N appears in 24% of answers (the 9th most common letter). No other answer in the bank opens with “EB-”, so locking those first two letters all but gives it away.
Difficulty: 1/5 — very approachable, because its letters are common and no close neighbors compete with it.
Words like EBONY 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.
Definitions adapted from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA). Letter statistics, difficulty ratings, and near-miss analysis are original Wordocious research computed from our curated answer list.