BOUND
BOUND is on the solver's possible-answer list but has not appeared as a Wordle answer yet.
As an opener, it rules out about 87.8% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈbaʊ̯nd//ˈbæʊ̯nd//ˈbaːnd/
- Verb
-
simple past and past participle of bind
“I bound the splint to my leg.”
- Adjective
-
Obliged (to).
“You are not legally bound to reply.”
- Adjective
-
That cannot stand alone as a free word.
- Noun
-
A boundary, the border which one must cross in order to enter or leave a territory.
“I reached the northern bound of my property, took a deep breath and walked on.”
Alternative forms: bownd
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
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Not used yetNo past answer date found.
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →How BOUND performs as a guess
BOUND 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 68.7% of games, misses completely in 31.3%, and leaves about 290 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,951 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.65 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe BOUND 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How BOUND 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches BOUND in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
BOUND can come back 93 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for BOUND; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing BOUND
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to BOUND.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing BOUND:
Research on BOUND
Game-tree analysis and word research for BOUND, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with BOUND, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #4,209 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 BOUND can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, at or below the proven-optimal 3.69, 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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, BOUND is a kind of line or extremity.
Synonyms spring edge border LIMIT jump boundary
Opposites free uncertain untreated
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- BOUND sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 29 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 B1); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 10, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 57 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with touch (3.2 of 5).
In a sentence
He is bound to her.
You're bound to like it.
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).