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

CANDY

Yes, CANDY was the Wordle answer on November 20, 2023 (Wordle #884).

As an opener, it rules out about 91.4% of possible answers.

Open Solver with CANDY Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈkæn.di/

Noun

Crystallized sugar formed by boiling down sugar syrup.

Noun

Edible, sweet-tasting confectionery containing sugar, or sometimes artificial sweeteners, and often flavored with fruit, chocolate, nuts, herbs and spices, or artificial flavors.

Verb

To cook in or coat with sugar syrup.

Verb

To form into congelations or crystals, especially of sugar or syrup.

“Fruits preserved in sugar candy over time.”

Alternative forms: kandi, candee, candie, candil

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: November 20, 2023 (#884).

See the full page for that puzzle: November 20, 2023 (#884).

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

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How CANDY performs as a guess

CANDY 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 77.3% of games, misses completely in 22.7%, and leaves about 203 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,622 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.

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.

C___Y C in the 1st position and Y in the 5th position C__D_ C in the 1st position and D in the 4th position _A__Y A in the 2nd position and Y in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe CANDY 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.

4.60 Entropy (bits)
203 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
91.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 59% of evaluated openers
1.34 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How CANDY 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.

3.65 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.66 Spread of game lengths
#3,622 Rank among openers
Opening with CANDY left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.66 means those games clustered within about 0.66 of a guess of the 3.65 average. It ranks #3,622 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
50
3 guesses
914
4 guesses
1,212
5 guesses
165
6 guesses
11
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:
AN

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
77%
Green tile
37%
All gray
23%

Example solver route

R O A T E
N A S A L
C H I D E
C A N D Y

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches CANDY in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

CANDY can come back 95 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

540 answers
281 answers
167 answers
141 answers
114 answers
108 answers
96 answers
74 answers
72 answers
55 answers
52 answers
42 answers
40 answers
39 answers
36 answers
34 answers
31 answers
23 answers
21 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

C3A1N1D2Y4
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Try next

TORSE ALERT TOISE SLOPE STOLE URITE

Strategy after playing CANDY

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing CANDY:

23% chance
Suggested:
TORSE
12% chance
Suggested:
ALERT
7% chance
Suggested:
TOISE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

22.7% →
TORSE 6.33 bits
11.8% →
ALERT 5.66 bits
7.0% →
TOISE 5.49 bits
5.9% →
SLOPE 4.57 bits
4.8% →
STOLE 4.65 bits
4.5% →
URITE 5.16 bits
4.0% →
TOILE 5.00 bits
3.1% →
PROLE 4.89 bits
3.0% →
GRISE 4.76 bits
2.3% →
TREAD 4.61 bits

Research on CANDY

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

Optimal play

Opening with CANDY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.68 guesses and ranks #3,644 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 CANDY can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, 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

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it KANDEE.

Rhymes with SANDY HANDY RANDY MANDY DANDY

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, CANDY is a kind of sweet or change.

Synonyms GLAZE

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
CANDY sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 19 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 5, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 94 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.

In a sentence

I don't like this candy.
© tatoeba.org contributor sabretou (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Can I have some candy?
© tatoeba.org contributor meshbags (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).