LYING

Meaning

To rest in a horizontal position on a surface.

“The book lies on the table;  the snow lies on the roof;  he lies in his coffin”

• verbTo give false information intentionally with intent to deceive.
• nounThe act of one who lies, or keeps low to the ground.

LYING as a word-puzzle answer

LYING is a 5-letter word with 1 vowel (I) and 4 consonants (L, Y, N, G). Every letter is distinct, so it rarely punishes a clean opening guess.

It leans on high-frequency letters (I, 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.

LYING by the numbers

Across the 1,734 curated answers in the Wordocious bank, I appears in 29% of answers (the 6th most common letter), L appears in 26% of answers (the 8th most common letter), N appears in 24% of answers (the 9th most common letter). 1 other answer share the opening “LY-”, 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: TYING, DYING. Each of these turns four tiles green against LYING — the classic endgame squeeze where spending a guess on the differing letter beats burning attempts on hope.

Put it to use

Words like LYING 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.