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

CLOUD

Yes, CLOUD was the Wordle answer on September 30, 2024 (Wordle #1199).

As an opener, it rules out about 91.3% of possible answers.

Open Solver with CLOUD Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈklaʊ̯d/[ˈkʰl̥aʊ̯d]/ˈklæʊ̯d/

Noun

A visible mass of water droplets suspended in the air.

Noun

Any mass of dust, steam or smoke resembling such a mass.

Verb

To become foggy or gloomy, or obscured from sight.

“The glass clouds when you breathe on it.”

Verb

To overspread or hide with a cloud or clouds.

“The sky is clouded.”

Alternative forms: cloude, clowd

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: September 30, 2024 (#1199).

See the full page for that puzzle: September 30, 2024 (#1199).

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

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How CLOUD performs as a guess

CLOUD 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 75.8% of games, misses completely in 24.2%, and leaves about 207 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,560 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.61 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___D C in the 1st position and D in the 5th position C__U_ C in the 1st position and U in the 4th position _L__D L in the 2nd position and D in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe CLOUD 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.

4.65 Entropy (bits)
207 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
91.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 62% of evaluated openers
1.30 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How CLOUD 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.

3.61 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.67 Spread of game lengths
#1,560 Rank among openers
Opening with CLOUD left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.67 means those games clustered within about 0.67 of a guess of the 3.61 average. It ranks #1,560 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
53
3 guesses
986
4 guesses
1,139
5 guesses
163
6 guesses
9
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
2 vowels
Common:
LOU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
30%
All gray
24%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I N K
B L O O D
C L O U D

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches CLOUD in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

CLOUD can come back 99 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

575 answers
212 answers
179 answers
143 answers
113 answers
107 answers
96 answers
78 answers
70 answers
60 answers
47 answers
47 answers
37 answers
36 answers
32 answers
27 answers
26 answers
26 answers
25 answers
25 answers
24 answers
24 answers
18 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
12 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

C3L1O1U1D2
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Try next

TARSE SATER RONTE STANE TIARE RAINE

Strategy after playing CLOUD

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing CLOUD:

24% chance
Suggested:
TARSE
9% chance
Suggested:
SATER
8% chance
Suggested:
RONTE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

24.2% →
TARSE 6.50 bits
8.9% →
SATER 5.38 bits
7.5% →
RONTE 5.38 bits
6.0% →
STANE 5.26 bits
4.8% →
STANE 4.74 bits
4.5% →
TIARE 5.28 bits
4.0% →
RAINE 5.44 bits
3.3% →
STANE 4.94 bits
2.9% →
IRATE 5.12 bits
2.5% →
LOYAL 4.17 bits

Research on CLOUD

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

Optimal play

Opening with CLOUD, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.65 guesses and ranks #1,864 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 CLOUD can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.61, at or below the proven-optimal 3.65, 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 KLOWD.

Rhymes with PROUD CROWD ALOUD VOWED BOWED

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, CLOUD is a kind of phenomenon or gloom.

Synonyms corrupt fog obscure mist SWARM SULLY

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
CLOUD sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 29 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 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 78 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.9 of 5).

In a sentence

Look at the cloud over there.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
What kind of cloud is that?
© tatoeba.org contributor mailohilohi (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).