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

BUNCH

Yes, BUNCH was the Wordle answer on October 5, 2023 (Wordle #838).

As an opener, it rules out about 85.2% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /bʌntʃ//bʌnʃ//bʌnt͡ʃ/

Noun

A group of similar things, either growing together, or in a cluster or clump, usually fastened together.

“a bunch of grapes”

Noun

The peloton; the main group of riders formed during a race.

Verb

To gather into a bunch.

Verb

To gather fabric into folds.

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: October 5, 2023 (#838).

See the full page for that puzzle: October 5, 2023 (#838).

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

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How BUNCH performs as a guess

BUNCH 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 65.1% of games, misses completely in 34.9%, and leaves about 352 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,952 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.70 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.

First-turn measures

All four describe BUNCH 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.

4.04 Entropy (bits)
352 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
85.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 25% of evaluated openers
1.90 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How BUNCH 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.

3.70 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#6,952 Rank among openers
Opening with BUNCH solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.70 average. It ranks #6,952 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
52
3 guesses
862
4 guesses
1,189
5 guesses
234
6 guesses
16
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:
NU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
65%
Green tile
27%
All gray
35%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I M Y
A B A C K
B U N C H

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches BUNCH in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

BUNCH can come back 85 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

829 answers
243 answers
147 answers
130 answers
107 answers
98 answers
91 answers
71 answers
57 answers
51 answers
49 answers
47 answers
36 answers
29 answers
28 answers
26 answers
24 answers
23 answers
15 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
10 answers
8 answers
8 answers
8 answers
8 answers
8 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

B3U1N1C3H4
Total: 12 points

Words With Friends

Total: 15 points

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

Strategy after playing BUNCH

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing BUNCH:

35% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
10% chance
Suggested:
ARIEL
6% chance
Suggested:
CARLE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

34.9%
RAILE 6.19 bits
10.2%
ARIEL 5.57 bits
6.2%
CARLE 5.52 bits
5.5%
TARSE 5.62 bits
4.5%
STOLE 5.32 bits
4.1%
SLYER 4.45 bits
3.8%
SERAL 5.10 bits
3.0%
SAGER 4.61 bits
2.4%
STONE 3.97 bits
2.1%
STRAE 4.79 bits

Research on BUNCH

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

Optimal play

Opening with BUNCH, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses and ranks #8,427 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.87 guesses at best and is rank #3,382 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.70, at or below the proven-optimal 3.76, 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 BUHNCH.

Rhymes with LUNCH PUNCH MUNCH HUNCH

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, BUNCH is a kind of collection or gathering.

Synonyms lot crew CROWD gang cluster bundle

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
BUNCH sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 37 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.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.3 of 5).

In a sentence

I want to get a bunch.
© tatoeba.org contributor DJ_Saidez (CC BY 2.0 FR)
He made a bunch of money.
© tatoeba.org contributor Joseph (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; Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).