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

CLIFF

Yes, CLIFF was the Wordle answer on January 24, 2026 (Wordle #1680).

As an opener, it rules out about 82.7% of possible answers.

Open Solver with CLIFF Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /klɪf/[kʰl̥ɪf]/kləf/

Noun

A vertical (or nearly vertical) rock face.

Noun

A point beyond which something abruptly fails or decreases in value, performance, etc.

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: January 24, 2026 (#1680).

See the full page for that puzzle: January 24, 2026 (#1680).

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

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How CLIFF performs as a guess

CLIFF 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 62.6% of games, misses completely in 37.4%, and leaves about 411 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,253 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.82 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___F C in the 1st position and F in the 5th position C__F_ C in the 1st position and F in the 4th position _L__F L in the 2nd position and F in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe CLIFF 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.

3.61 Entropy (bits)
411 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
82.7% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 9% of evaluated openers
2.34 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How CLIFF 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.

3.82 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#12,253 Rank among openers
Opening with CLIFF left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.82 average. It ranks #12,253 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
36
3 guesses
713
4 guesses
1,264
5 guesses
314
6 guesses
23
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:
IL

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
63%
Green tile
26%
All gray
37%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I M Y
F L I C K
C L I F F

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches CLIFF in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

CLIFF can come back 64 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

887 answers
266 answers
210 answers
142 answers
129 answers
113 answers
95 answers
74 answers
54 answers
44 answers
32 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
22 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
14 answers
12 answers
10 answers
10 answers
8 answers
7 answers
7 answers
7 answers
5 answers
4 answers
4 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

C3L1I1F4F4
Total: 13 points

Words With Friends

Total: 15 points

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

Try next

ROATE SALLE RONTE TRONE ORATE AROSE

Strategy after playing CLIFF

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing CLIFF:

37% chance
Suggested:
ROATE
11% chance
Suggested:
SALLE
9% chance
Suggested:
RONTE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

37.4% →
ROATE 6.22 bits
11.2% →
SALLE 5.54 bits
8.8% →
RONTE 5.28 bits
6.0% →
TRONE 5.19 bits
5.4% →
ROATE 5.36 bits
4.8% →
ORATE 5.45 bits
4.0% →
AROSE 4.86 bits
3.1% →
DIANE 4.31 bits
2.3% →
ORATE 4.66 bits
1.9% →
POTAE 4.20 bits

Research on CLIFF

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

Optimal play

Opening with CLIFF, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.85 guesses and ranks #12,773 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.98 guesses at best and is rank #5,907 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.82, at or below the proven-optimal 3.85, 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 KLIHF.

Rhymes with STIFF SNIFF WHIFF GRIFF SKIFF

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, CLIFF is a kind of formation.

Synonyms drop

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
CLIFF sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 13 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.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 92 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.4 of 5).

In a sentence

The bus went over the cliff.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
I was on the edge of the cliff.
© tatoeba.org contributor Nylez (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).