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

BULLY

Yes, BULLY was the Wordle answer on August 8, 2023 (Wordle #780).

As an opener, it rules out about 79.9% of possible answers.

Open Solver with BULLY Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈbʊli//ˈbɵlɪj//ˈbʉle/

Noun

A person who is intentionally physically or emotionally cruel to others, especially to those whom they perceive as being vulnerable or of less power or privilege.

“A playground bully pushed a girl off the swing.”

Noun

A noisy, blustering, tyrannical person, more insolent than courageous; one who is threatening and quarrelsome.

Verb

To intimidate (someone) as a bully.

“You shouldn't bully people for being weak.”

Verb

To act aggressively towards.

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: August 8, 2023 (#780).

See the full page for that puzzle: August 8, 2023 (#780).

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

Wordle Observatory · optional

Played this Wordle?

Add your result to the public totals · about 20 seconds

Add your result and a quick difficulty rating to help explain how this puzzle played.

See the public data

The Observatory retains the selected puzzle, result, rating, optional Hard Mode answer and a random one-puzzle receipt. It stores no answer word, grid, guesses, account, email, IP-derived ID or reusable player identifier.

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 BULLY performs as a guess

BULLY 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 58.6% of games, misses completely in 41.4%, and leaves about 478 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,171 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.85 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___Y B in the 1st position and Y in the 5th position B__L_ B in the 1st position and L in the 4th position _U__Y U in the 2nd position and Y in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe BULLY 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.

3.55 Entropy (bits)
478 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
79.9% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 8% of evaluated openers
2.39 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How BULLY 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.

3.85 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.75 Spread of game lengths
#13,171 Rank among openers
Opening with BULLY left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.75 means those games clustered within about 0.75 of a guess of the 3.85 average. It ranks #13,171 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
43
3 guesses
689
4 guesses
1,224
5 guesses
362
6 guesses
33
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

4/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
LU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
59%
Green tile
33%
All gray
41%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I M Y
B A D L Y
B U L L Y

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches BULLY in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

BULLY can come back 77 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

983 answers
260 answers
207 answers
173 answers
83 answers
76 answers
50 answers
45 answers
45 answers
42 answers
40 answers
36 answers
29 answers
26 answers
24 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
9 answers
9 answers
8 answers
8 answers
8 answers
8 answers
7 answers
6 answers
6 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

B3U1L1L1Y4
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Try next

TIARE SARED STONE SATER IRATE SANER

Strategy after playing BULLY

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing BULLY:

41% chance
Suggested:
TIARE
11% chance
Suggested:
TIARE
9% chance
Suggested:
SARED

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

41.4% →
TIARE 6.28 bits
11.0% →
TIARE 5.37 bits
8.7% →
SARED 4.98 bits
7.3% →
STONE 5.44 bits
3.5% →
SATER 4.82 bits
3.2% →
IRATE 5.31 bits
2.1% →
SANER 4.74 bits
1.9% →
PAISE 4.71 bits
1.9% →
SCONE 3.82 bits
1.8% →
MARSE 3.10 bits

Research on BULLY

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

Optimal play

Opening with BULLY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.86 guesses and ranks #13,006 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 BULLY can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.85, at or below the proven-optimal 3.86, 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 BUULEE.

Rhymes with FULLY WOOLY

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, BULLY is a kind of attacker or tough.

Synonyms GREAT old TOUGH keen neat cracking

Opposites bad

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
BULLY sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 7 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
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 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 75 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.8 of 5).

In a sentence

Don't be a bully with me.
© tatoeba.org contributor Nuel (CC BY 2.0 FR)
That guy is a bully.
© 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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).