Word of the Day · Sunday, April 7, 2024
/θʌm/noun
The short thick digit of the hand that for humans has the most mobility and can be made to oppose (moved to touch) all of the other fingers.
Similardigit I, first digit, pollex, thumby, browse, leaf, page, peruse
THUMB is a 5-letter word with 1 vowel (U) and 4 consonants (T, H, M, B). Every letter is distinct, so it rarely punishes a clean opening guess.
It leans on high-frequency letters (T), 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, T appears in 30% of answers (the 4th most common letter), U appears in 18% of answers (the 12th most common letter), H appears in 17% of answers (the 13th most common letter). 17 other answers share the opening “TH-”, so two green tiles up front still leave real guessing to do.
Difficulty: 2/5 — approachable, because its letters are common and no close neighbors compete with it.
Words like THUMB 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.