5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess C tier for first-turn info

ALARM

Yes, ALARM was the Wordle answer on May 21, 2025 (Wordle #1432).

As an opener, it rules out about 91.0% of possible answers.

Open Solver with ALARM Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /əˈlɑːm//əˈlɑɹm//əˈlɑ(rə)m/

Noun

A summons to arms, as on the approach of an enemy.

Noun

Any sound or information intended to give notice of approaching danger; a warning sound to arouse attention; a warning of danger.

Verb

To call to arms for defense.

Verb

To give (someone) notice of approaching danger or necessary action; to rouse to vigilance; to put on the alert.

“The sudden drop in temperature should alarm you into taking precautions.”

Alternative forms: alarum

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Wordle status

A word can be a playable guess without being a possible answer.

Playable guess

Yes

Included in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.

Possible answer

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

Past Wordle answer

Used once

Past Wordle answer: May 21, 2025 (#1432).

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

Wordle Observatory

How did this puzzle feel?

About the project

Add an anonymous result and difficulty rating to the public, aggregate research dataset.

We send only this answer word for puzzle verification, the puzzle number, result, difficulty vote, Hard Mode flag, timezone and a random one-puzzle receipt token. The Observatory stores no answer word, grid, guesses, account, email, IP-derived ID or reusable player identifier. The puzzle-specific receipt prevents duplicate submissions and permits withdrawal; anyone with that token can withdraw, so keep browser-data exports private. See the privacy details.

How ALARM performs as a guess

ALARM is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,360 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 78.3% of games, misses completely in 21.7%, and leaves about 211 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,970 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.72 guesses in games solved within six turns.

Try your feedback pattern

Tap the tiles to match your feedback, then see the ranked follow-up guesses.

All gray? Tap a tile to cycle gray → yellow → green.

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

A___M A in the 1st position and M in the 5th position A__R_ A in the 1st position and R in the 4th position _L__M L in the 2nd position and M in the 5th position

Try next

SIENT TOISE TOILE CONTE TAPER SOUCE
Words starting with A Words ending with M

First-turn measures

All four describe ALARM used as an opening guess. Entropy is the same idea as “avg ruled out” on a log scale: a higher number means the guess splits the possible answers into more, smaller groups.

4.47 Entropy (bits)
211 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
91.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 50% of evaluated openers
1.48 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ALARM performed in the previous complete opener benchmark, against its captured answer snapshot. These research figures are separate from today's solver recommendations. See the data page for the method.

3.72 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#7,970 Rank among openers
Opening with ALARM left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.73 means those games clustered within about 0.73 of a guess of the 3.72 average. It ranks #7,970 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
56
3 guesses
852
4 guesses
1,152
5 guesses
273
6 guesses
18
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.45 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ALR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
78%
Green tile
29%
All gray
22%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S W I N G
M U L C H
A L A R M

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches ALARM in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

ALARM can come back 92 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

511 answers
351 answers
179 answers
155 answers
96 answers
87 answers
87 answers
84 answers
84 answers
62 answers
60 answers
42 answers
39 answers
37 answers
36 answers
31 answers
30 answers
27 answers
27 answers
22 answers
17 answers
16 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ALARM:

22% chance
Suggested:
SIENT
15% chance
Suggested:
TOISE
8% chance
Suggested:
TOILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

Ranked follow-up guesses for the 10 most common feedback patterns.

21.7% →
SIENT 6.24 bits
14.9% →
TOISE 5.51 bits
7.6% →
TOILE 5.12 bits
6.6% →
CONTE 5.06 bits
4.1% →
TAPER 4.52 bits
3.7% →
SOUCE 4.76 bits
3.7% →
SALLE 4.61 bits
3.6% →
HOISE 4.89 bits
3.6% →
SHITE 5.00 bits
2.6% →
SINCE 3.79 bits

Letter-value totals

Base letter-value totals for ALARM; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.

Scrabble

A1L1A1R1M3
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.

The science of ALARM

What game-tree analysis and word research measure about ALARM — each figure with what it means.

Optimal play

Opening with ALARM, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses — rank #8,777 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.88 guesses at best — rank #3,651 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.72 — at or below the proven-optimal 3.76 only because the two figures score different answer lists.

These figures come from exhaustive game-tree search and are exact for the NYT lists of July 2023 (3,158 answers) — not the site's working answer pool.

How it sounds

Two syllables, stress on the second syllable — say it UHLAHRM.

Rhymes with CHARM REARM UNARM

Meaning network

In WordNet's sense inventory, ALARM is a kind of fear or device.

Synonyms ALERT dismay

How people know it

Frequency
ALARM sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 19 times per million words of written English — an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A2) — among the first words English learners study.
Dominant sense
People report experiencing what it names mainly by sound (auditory strength 4.1 of 5 in the Lancaster norms).

In a sentence

What was that alarm for?
© tatoeba.org contributor sharptoothed (CC BY 2.0 FR)
I don't want to alarm you.
© tatoeba.org contributor CM (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).