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

BREAK

Yes, BREAK has been the Wordle answer on December 8, 2021 (Wordle #172) and June 12, 2026 (Wordle #1819).

As an opener, it rules out about 93.2% of possible answers.

Open Solver with BREAK Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /bɹeɪk/[bɹʷeɪ̯k]/bɹɛk/

Verb

To separate into two or more pieces, to fracture or crack, by a process that cannot easily be reversed for reassembly.

“If the vase falls to the floor, it might break.”

Verb

To divide (something, often money) into smaller units.

“Can you break a hundred-dollar bill for me?”

Noun

An instance of breaking something into two or more pieces.

“The femur has a clean break and so should heal easily.”

Noun

A physical space that opens up in something or between two things.

“The sun came out in a break in the clouds.”

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 2 times

Past Wordle answer: December 8, 2021 (#172); June 12, 2026 (#1819).

See the full page for each puzzle: December 8, 2021 (#172); June 12, 2026 (#1819).

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

Wordle Observatory · optional

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How verification and withdrawal work

The answer word and timezone are used transiently to verify this page, then discarded. The receipt prevents duplicate submissions and lets this browser withdraw later; anyone with that token can withdraw, so keep browser-data exports private. Read the full privacy details.

How BREAK performs as a guess

BREAK 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 83.7% of games, misses completely in 16.3%, and leaves about 162 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,435 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.71 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___K B in the 1st position and K in the 5th position B__A_ B in the 1st position and A in the 4th position _R__K R in the 2nd position and K in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe BREAK 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.

4.76 Entropy (bits)
162 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
93.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 69% of evaluated openers
1.18 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How BREAK 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.

3.71 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#7,435 Rank among openers
Opening with BREAK 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 3.71 average. It ranks #7,435 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
64
3 guesses
846
4 guesses
1,162
5 guesses
262
6 guesses
17
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:
AER

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
84%
Green tile
30%
All gray
16%

Example solver route

R O A T E
G L E A M
W R A C K
B R E A K

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches BREAK in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

BREAK can come back 98 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

386 answers
266 answers
245 answers
181 answers
146 answers
111 answers
86 answers
70 answers
68 answers
68 answers
49 answers
45 answers
40 answers
37 answers
37 answers
30 answers
27 answers
23 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
18 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

B3R1E1A1K5
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Try next

SOILY TOILE SAINT SEINE SLATE COURT

Strategy after playing BREAK

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing BREAK:

16% chance
Suggested:
SOILY
11% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
10% chance
Suggested:
SAINT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

16.3% →
SOILY 5.68 bits
11.2% →
TOILE 5.41 bits
10.3% →
SAINT 5.32 bits
7.6% →
SEINE 4.51 bits
6.1% →
SLATE 5.00 bits
4.7% →
COURT 5.01 bits
3.6% →
TARDY 4.06 bits
2.9% →
SLEET 4.81 bits
2.9% →
PALET 3.77 bits
2.9% →
PRINT 4.08 bits

Research on BREAK

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

Optimal play

Opening with BREAK, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.73 guesses and ranks #6,614 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 BREAK can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.71, at or below the proven-optimal 3.73, 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 BRAYK.

Rhymes with SHAKE SNAKE STAKE AWAKE STEAK

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, BREAK is a kind of happening or accident.

Synonyms go part better give stop CHECK

Opposites repair keep make

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
BREAK sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 151 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A1); among the first words English learners study.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 54 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.

In a sentence

I was on a break.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Are you on a break?
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (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).