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

CHAIN

Yes, CHAIN was the Wordle answer on December 10, 2023 (Wordle #904).

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈt͡ʃeɪn/

Noun

A series of interconnected rings or links usually made of metal.

“He wore a gold chain around the neck.”

Noun

A series of interconnected things.

“a chain of mountains”

Verb

To fasten something with a chain.

“You should chain your bicycle to the railings to protect it from being stolen.”

Verb

To connect as if with a chain, due to dependence, addiction, or other feelings

“Sometimes I feel like I'm chained to this computer.”

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Etymology

From Middle English cheyne, chaine, from Old French chaine, chaene (“chain”), from Latin catēna (“chain”), from Proto-Indo-European *kat- (“to braid, twist; hut, shed”). Doublet of catena. Displaced native Middle English rakil and rakent (from Old English racente (“chain”)); see rackan.

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

One syllable Say it CHAYN.

Rhymes with TRAIN BRAIN PLANE SPAIN PLAIN

Related meanings

Synonyms RANGE string strand

In a sentence

All life is a great chain.
© tatoeba.org contributor Hybrid (CC BY 2.0 FR)
The chain is made of gold.
© tatoeba.org contributor rul (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use CHAIN in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 92.7% of possible answers.

Open Solver with CHAIN Open Word Finder

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: December 10, 2023 (#904).

See the full page for that puzzle: December 10, 2023 (#904).

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

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How verification and withdrawal work

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CHAIN in Connections

14 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . Showing the 5 most recent. A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.

How CHAIN performs as a guess

CHAIN is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,384 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 80.3% of games, misses completely in 19.7%, and leaves about 175 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,281 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.62 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___N C in the 1st position and N in the 5th position C__I_ C in the 1st position and I in the 4th position _H__N H in the 2nd position and N in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe CHAIN 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.

4.90 Entropy (bits)
175 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
92.7% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How CHAIN 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.

3.62 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#2,281 Rank among openers
Opening with CHAIN left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.62 average. It ranks #2,281 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
59
3 guesses
986
4 guesses
1,100
5 guesses
190
6 guesses
17

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AIN

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
80%
Green tile
33%
All gray
20%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I C K
C H A I N

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches CHAIN in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

CHAIN can come back 110 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

469 answers
294 answers
203 answers
126 answers
116 answers
89 answers
66 answers
64 answers
51 answers
48 answers
47 answers
41 answers
40 answers
35 answers
33 answers
28 answers
28 answers
28 answers
26 answers
26 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
19 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

C3H4A1I1N1
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Try next

SOLER TALER STILE STURE TORSE SEITY

Strategy after playing CHAIN

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing CHAIN:

20% chance
Suggested:
SOLER
12% chance
Suggested:
TALER
9% chance
Suggested:
STILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

19.7% →
SOLER 6.06 bits
12.3% →
TALER 5.65 bits
8.5% →
STILE 5.38 bits
5.3% →
STURE 5.01 bits
4.9% →
TORSE 5.23 bits
3.7% →
SEITY 4.40 bits
2.8% →
TONEY 4.29 bits
2.7% →
ROUTE 4.97 bits
2.1% →
TROPE 4.80 bits
2.0% →
TORSE 4.70 bits

Research on CHAIN

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

Optimal play

Opening with CHAIN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.68 guesses and ranks #3,524 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.81 guesses at best and is rank #1,576 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.62, 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
CHAIN sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 45 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 A2); among the first words English learners study.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 89 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.0 of 5).

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).