SKATE

Meaning

A light boot, fitted with a blade, used for ice skating.

• nounA boot having small wheels or casters attached to its sole; used for roller skating
• nounA runner or blade, usually of steel, with a frame shaped to fit the sole of a shoe, made to be fastened under the foot, and used for gliding on ice.
• verbTo move along a surface (ice or ground) using skates.

SKATE as a word-puzzle answer

SKATE is a 5-letter word with 2 vowels (A, E) and 3 consonants (S, K, T). Every letter is distinct, so it rarely punishes a clean opening guess.

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

SKATE by the numbers

Across the 2,412 curated answers in the Wordocious bank, E appears in 48% of answers (the 1st most common letter), A appears in 40% of answers (the 2nd most common letter), T appears in 29% of answers (the 5th most common letter). 11 other answers share the opening “SK-”, 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: STATE, SPATE, SLATE. Each of these turns four tiles green against SKATE — the classic endgame squeeze where spending a guess on the differing letter beats burning attempts on hope.

Same letters, different order: STAKE, STEAK — yellow-heavy boards can be hiding one of these anagrams instead.

Put it to use

Words like SKATE 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.