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

BASTE

Yes, BASTE was the Wordle answer on March 20, 2025 (Wordle #1370).

As an opener, it rules out about 95.4% of possible answers.

Open Solver with BASTE Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /beɪst/

Verb

To sew with long or loose stitches, as for temporary use, or in preparation for gathering the fabric.

Verb

To sprinkle flour and salt and drip butter or fat on, as on meat in roasting.

Noun

A basting; a sprinkling of drippings etc. in cooking.

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: March 20, 2025 (#1370).

See the full page for that puzzle: March 20, 2025 (#1370).

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

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How BASTE performs as a guess

BASTE 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 87.2% of games, misses completely in 12.8%, and leaves about 108 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,043 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.62 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.

B___E B in the 1st position and E in the 5th position B__T_ B in the 1st position and T in the 4th position _A__E A in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe BASTE 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.

5.30 Entropy (bits)
108 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
95.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 95% of evaluated openers
0.65 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How BASTE 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.

3.62 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#2,043 Rank among openers
Opening with BASTE left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.62 average. It ranks #2,043 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
91
3 guesses
895
4 guesses
1,190
5 guesses
166
6 guesses
10
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:
AEST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
87%
Green tile
39%
All gray
13%

Example solver route

R O A T E
B U T C H
B A S T E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches BASTE in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

BASTE can come back 118 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

305 answers
218 answers
161 answers
120 answers
112 answers
96 answers
93 answers
79 answers
68 answers
68 answers
66 answers
64 answers
52 answers
52 answers
47 answers
38 answers
37 answers
36 answers
35 answers
32 answers
31 answers
27 answers
26 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

B3A1S1T1E1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Try next

COULD OLDER GRAIL GRICE SPOIL TOUGH

Strategy after playing BASTE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing BASTE:

13% chance
Suggested:
COULD
9% chance
Suggested:
OLDER
7% chance
Suggested:
GRAIL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.8% →
COULD 5.62 bits
9.2% →
OLDER 5.02 bits
6.8% →
GRAIL 5.01 bits
5.1% →
GRICE 4.39 bits
4.7% →
SPOIL 4.81 bits
4.0% →
TOUGH 4.87 bits
3.9% →
RANDY 4.04 bits
3.3% →
ENTER 4.68 bits
2.9% →
RENAL 4.85 bits
2.9% →
CLASH 4.28 bits

Research on BASTE

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

Optimal play

Opening with BASTE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.63 guesses and ranks #957 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 BASTE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.62, at or below the proven-optimal 3.63, 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

One syllable Say it BAYST.

Rhymes with BASED WASTE TASTE FACED WAIST

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, BASTE is a kind of stitch or wash.

Synonyms batter tack

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
BASTE sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.6 of 5).

In a sentence

You need to baste the meat while cooking it.
© tatoeba.org contributor Lebensfreude (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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).