Word of the Day · Monday, July 27, 2026
/pʊls/noun
A normally regular beat felt when arteries are depressed, caused by the pumping action of the heart.
PULSE is a 5-letter word with 2 vowels (U, E) and 3 consonants (P, L, S). Every letter is distinct, so it rarely punishes a clean opening guess.
It leans on high-frequency letters (S, E), 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.
Across the 2,412 curated answers in the Wordocious bank, E appears in 48% of answers (the 1st most common letter), S appears in 27% of answers (the 7th most common letter), L appears in 25% of answers (the 8th most common letter). 13 other answers share the opening “PU-”, 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.
One letter away in the answer bank: PURSE. Each of these turns four tiles green against PULSE — the classic endgame squeeze where spending a guess on the differing letter beats burning attempts on hope.
Words like PULSE 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.
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.