5 FiveLetterWords
Accepted guess Not a possible answer C tier for first-turn info

BOLDS

BOLDS is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.

As an opener, it rules out about 90.4% of possible answers.

Open Solver with BOLDS Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of bold

Verb

third-person singular simple present indicative of bold

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

No

The solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.

Past Wordle answer

Not used yet

No past answer date found.

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

How BOLDS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts BOLDS as a guess, but the solver does not list it as a possible answer.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 76.6% of games, misses completely in 23.4%, and leaves about 228 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,634 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.63 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___S B in the 1st position and S in the 5th position B__D_ B in the 1st position and D in the 4th position _O__S O in the 2nd position and S in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe BOLDS 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.

4.40 Entropy (bits)
228 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 45% of evaluated openers
1.55 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How BOLDS 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.

3.63 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.67 Spread of game lengths
#2,634 Rank among openers
Opening with BOLDS left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.67 means those games clustered within about 0.67 of a guess of the 3.63 average. It ranks #2,634 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
53
3 guesses
951
4 guesses
1,169
5 guesses
171
6 guesses
9
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
1 vowels
Common:
LOS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
77%
Green tile
26%
All gray
23%

Feedback distribution

BOLDS can come back 90 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

556 answers
305 answers
242 answers
153 answers
126 answers
113 answers
78 answers
71 answers
50 answers
41 answers
40 answers
39 answers
36 answers
34 answers
33 answers
32 answers
30 answers
26 answers
25 answers
18 answers
17 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

B3O1L1D2S1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Try next

TIARE RAINE CRANE DINER CARTE THALE

Strategy after playing BOLDS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing BOLDS:

23% chance
Suggested:
TIARE
13% chance
Suggested:
TIARE
10% chance
Suggested:
RAINE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

23.4% →
TIARE 6.25 bits
12.8% →
TIARE 5.71 bits
10.2% →
RAINE 5.46 bits
6.4% →
CRANE 5.40 bits
5.3% →
DINER 5.51 bits
4.8% →
CARTE 4.80 bits
3.3% →
THALE 4.74 bits
3.0% →
PEART 4.27 bits
2.1% →
CRATE 5.01 bits
1.7% →
RAILE 4.42 bits

Research on BOLDS

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

Optimal play

Opening with BOLDS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.68 guesses and ranks #3,721 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 BOLDS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.63, at or below the proven-optimal 3.68, 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 BOHLDZ.

Rhymes with HOLDS FOLDS GOLDS MOLDS COLDS

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, BOLDS is a kind of case.

Synonyms SHEER BLUFF BRAVE STEEP HARDY heroic

Opposites TIMID gradual

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
BOLDS sits in the rare band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word few players will have met in print.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with internal bodily sensation (3.5 of 5).

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).