GUPPY

Meaning

A tiny freshwater fish, Poecilia reticulata, popular in home aquariums, that usually has a plain body and black or dark blue tail for the females and a more colorful tail for the males.

“Fred kept a tank of guppies by the windowsill.”

GUPPY as a word-puzzle answer

GUPPY is a 5-letter word with 1 vowel (U) and 4 consonants (G, P, P, Y). It repeats 1 letter, which is a classic trap — guessers who assume five distinct letters get stuck.

There are no rare letters here, so it is a fair, mid-difficulty answer for the daily Classic puzzle.

GUPPY by the numbers

Across the 1,734 curated answers in the Wordocious bank, U appears in 18% of answers (the 12th most common letter), Y appears in 14% of answers (the 14th most common letter), P appears in 13% of answers (the 15th most common letter). 9 other answers share the opening “GU-”, 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: PUPPY. Each of these turns four tiles green against GUPPY — the classic endgame squeeze where spending a guess on the differing letter beats burning attempts on hope.

Put it to use

Words like GUPPY 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.