Word of the Day

Word of the Day · Saturday, February 28, 2026

CRAZE

noun

Meaning

  1. noun

    A strong habitual desire or fancy.

  2. noun

    A temporary passion or infatuation, as for some new amusement, pursuit, or fashion; a fad.

  3. noun

    A crack in the glaze or enamel caused by exposure of the pottery to great or irregular heat.

  4. verb

    To weaken; to impair; to render decrepit.

CRAZE as a puzzle answer

CRAZE is a 5-letter word with 2 vowels (A, E) and 3 consonants (C, R, Z). Every letter is distinct, so it rarely punishes a clean opening guess.

It leans on high-frequency letters (R, A, E), so a strong vowel-and-common-consonant opener tends to light up quickly. Watch for the less-common letter Z — saving a guess to test it once the vowels are placed is usually the fastest route.

CRAZE by the numbers

Across the 1,734 curated answers in the Wordocious bank, E appears in 50% of answers (the 1st most common letter), A appears in 40% of answers (the 2nd most common letter), R appears in 37% of answers (the 3rd most common letter). 29 other answers share the opening “CR-”, so two purple tiles up front still leave real guessing to do.

Difficulty: 3/5 — moderate, because it uses at least one genuinely rare letter, and 5+ near-miss answers compete for the same greens.

Near misses

One letter away in the answer bank: GRAZE, CRAZY, CRAVE, CRANE, CRATE. Each of these turns four tiles purple against CRAZE — the classic endgame squeeze where spending a guess on the differing letter beats burning attempts on hope.

Put it to use

Words like CRAZE 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 every mode.

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.