SHARP

Meaning

The symbol ♯, placed after the name of a note in the key signature or before a note on the staff to indicate that the note is to be played a semitone higher.

“The pitch pipe sounded out a perfect F♯ (F sharp).”

• verbTo raise the pitch of a note half a step making a natural note a sharp.
• adjectiveTerminating in a point or edge, especially one that can cut easily; not obtuse or rounded.
• adverbTo a point or edge; piercingly; eagerly; sharply.

SHARP as a word-puzzle answer

SHARP is a 5-letter word with 1 vowel (A) and 4 consonants (S, H, R, P). Every letter is distinct, so it rarely punishes a clean opening guess.

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

SHARP by the numbers

Across the 1,734 curated answers in the Wordocious bank, A appears in 40% of answers (the 2nd most common letter), R appears in 37% of answers (the 3rd most common letter), S appears in 28% of answers (the 7th most common letter). 41 other answers share the opening “SH-”, 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.

Near misses

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

Put it to use

Words like SHARP 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.