Word of the Day

Word of the Day · Tuesday, March 10, 2026

BERTH

noun

Meaning

  1. noun

    Chiefly in wide berth: a sufficient space in the water for a ship or other vessel to lie at anchor or maneuver without getting in the way of other vessels, or colliding into rocks or the shore. A place for a vessel to lie at anchor or to moor. A room in a vessel in which the officers or company mess (“eat together”) and reside; also, a room or other place in a vessel for storage. A place on a vessel to sleep, especially a bed on the side of a cabin. A job or position on a vessel.

  2. noun

    A place for a vessel to lie at anchor or to moor.

  3. noun

    A room in a vessel in which the officers or company mess (“eat together”) and reside; also, a room or other place in a vessel for storage.

  4. verb

    To bring (a ship or other vessel) into a berth (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1.1); also, to provide a berth for (a vessel).

BERTH as a puzzle answer

BERTH is a 5-letter word with 1 vowel (E) and 4 consonants (B, R, T, H). Every letter is distinct, so it rarely punishes a clean opening guess.

It leans on high-frequency letters (E, R, 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.

BERTH by the numbers

Across the 1,734 curated answers in the Wordocious bank, E appears in 50% of answers (the 1st most common letter), R appears in 37% of answers (the 3rd most common letter), T appears in 30% of answers (the 4th most common letter). 15 other answers share the opening “BE-”, so two purple tiles up front still leave real guessing to do.

Difficulty: 1/5 — very approachable, because its letters are common and no close neighbors compete with it.

Near misses

One letter away in the answer bank: BIRTH. Each of these turns four tiles purple against BERTH — the classic endgame squeeze where spending a guess on the differing letter beats burning attempts on hope.

Put it to use

Words like BERTH 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.