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

ALTER

Yes, ALTER was the Wordle answer on January 20, 2023 (Wordle #580).

As an opener, it rules out about 96.9% of possible answers.

Open Solver with ALTER Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈɒl.tə//ˈɔːl.tə//ˈɔl.təɹ/

Verb

To change the form or structure of.

Verb

To become different.

Noun

One of the personalities, identities, or selves in a person with dissociative identity disorder or another form of multiplicity.

Noun

Misspelling of altar.

Alternative forms: altre

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: January 20, 2023 (#580).

See the full page for that puzzle: January 20, 2023 (#580).

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

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How ALTER performs as a guess

ALTER is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,374 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 91.4% of games, misses completely in 8.6%, and leaves about 73 possible answers on average.

In the current bounded six-turn policy, it ranks #81 of 182 evaluated openers; exact misses rank first, then average guesses among wins.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #272 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.57 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.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

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

A___R A in the 1st position and R in the 5th position A__E_ A in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _L__R L in the 2nd position and R in the 5th position

Explore lists that match the beginning, ending or letters in ALTER.

First-turn measures

All four describe ALTER 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.

5.71 Entropy (bits)
73 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
96.9% Avg ruled out
In the top 1% for first-turn entropy
0.24 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ALTER 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.

3.57 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#272 Rank among openers
Opening with ALTER left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.57 average. It ranks #272 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
86
3 guesses
1,017
4 guesses
1,081
5 guesses
148
6 guesses
19
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.46 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AELRT

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
91%
Green tile
32%
All gray
9%

Example solver route

R O A T E
T A E L S
A L T E R

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches ALTER in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

ALTER can come back 128 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

205 answers
140 answers
116 answers
111 answers
110 answers
102 answers
91 answers
86 answers
74 answers
64 answers
63 answers
62 answers
57 answers
56 answers
53 answers
52 answers
45 answers
40 answers
37 answers
33 answers
31 answers
30 answers
27 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
21 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

A1L1T1E1R1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 6 points

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

Try next

NOISY SEINE MASON HOIST CRONY POISE

Strategy after playing ALTER

What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to ALTER.

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ALTER:

9% chance
Suggested:
NOISY
6% chance
Suggested:
SEINE
5% chance
Suggested:
MASON

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

8.6% →
NOISY 5.42 bits
5.9% →
SEINE 5.54 bits
4.9% →
MASON 4.65 bits
4.7% →
HOIST 5.15 bits
4.6% →
CRONY 4.87 bits
4.3% →
POISE 4.47 bits
3.8% →
CHARD 4.49 bits
3.6% →
SILLY 4.84 bits
3.1% →
NOISE 3.28 bits
2.7% →
TROUT 4.60 bits

Research on ALTER

Game-tree analysis and word research for ALTER, with an explanation for each figure.

Optimal play

Opening with ALTER, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.58 guesses and ranks #31 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

No guaranteed hard-mode solve In hard mode, no strategy that opens with ALTER can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.57, at or below the proven-optimal 3.58, 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). They do not use the site's working answer pool.

How it sounds

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it AWLTUR.

Rhymes with ALTAR

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, ALTER is a kind of have or move.

Synonyms change vary modify

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
ALTER sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 11 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 8, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 54 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.7 of 5).

In a sentence

You can't alter the past.
© tatoeba.org contributor Amastan (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Nothing can alter the past.
© tatoeba.org contributor IMer (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; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).