COMET

Meaning

A celestial body consisting mainly of ice, dust and gas in a (usually very eccentric) orbit around the Sun and having a "tail" of matter blown back from it by the solar wind as it approaches the Sun.

COMET as a word-puzzle answer

COMET is a 5-letter word with 2 vowels (O, E) and 3 consonants (C, M, T). Every letter is distinct, so it rarely punishes a clean opening guess.

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

COMET by the numbers

Across the 1,734 curated answers in the Wordocious bank, E appears in 50% of answers (the 1st most common letter), T appears in 30% of answers (the 4th most common letter), O appears in 30% of answers (the 5th most common letter). 21 other answers share the opening “CO-”, so two green 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.

Put it to use

Words like COMET 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.