5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess C tier opener

COULD

Yes, COULD was the Wordle answer on January 29, 2022 (Wordle #224).

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

Open Solver with COULD Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /kəd/[kʰəd]/kʊd/

Verb

simple past of can

“Before I was blind, I could see very well.”

Verb

conditional of can

“I'd have thought you could have done the dishes, at least.”

Noun

Something that could happen, or could be the case, under different circumstances; a potentiality.

Alternative forms: coulde, couldst, couldest, could'st

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 29, 2022 (#224).

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

Wordle Observatory

How did this puzzle feel?

About the project

Add an anonymous result and difficulty rating to the public, aggregate research dataset.

We send only this answer word for puzzle verification, the puzzle number, result, difficulty vote, Hard Mode flag, timezone and a random one-puzzle receipt token. The Observatory stores no answer word, grid, guesses, account, email, IP-derived ID or reusable player identifier. The puzzle-specific receipt prevents duplicate submissions and permits withdrawal; anyone with that token can withdraw, so keep browser-data exports private. See the privacy details.

How COULD performs as a guess

COULD is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,358 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 75.9% of games, misses completely in 24.1%, and leaves about 203 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete v5 benchmark, it ranks #1,349 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.

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__L_ C in the 1st position and L in the 4th position _O__D O in the 2nd position and D in the 5th position

Try next

TARSE RAISE TRONE RANSE TIARE RAINE
Words starting with C Words ending with D

First-turn measures

4.70 Entropy (bits)
203 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
91.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 65% of evaluated openers
1.25 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opener: v5 benchmark

How COULD 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
99.9% Win rate
0.68 Volatility
#1,349 v5 opener rank
In the complete v5 snapshot, COULD ranks #1,349 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
64
3 guesses
982
4 guesses
1,124
5 guesses
171
6 guesses
9
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.45 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
LOU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
33%
All gray
24%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S C O L D
C O U L D

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches COULD in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

108 possible patterns. Top outcomes:

569
211
181
122
111
106
96
76
70
54
52
47
33
31
31
27
27
26
24
24
23
23
23
19
19
18
17
16
16
14

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing COULD:

24% chance
Suggested:
TARSE
9% chance
Suggested:
RAISE
8% chance
Suggested:
TRONE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

24.1% →
TARSE 6.49 bits
8.9% →
RAISE 5.40 bits
7.7% →
TRONE 5.51 bits
5.2% →
RANSE 5.18 bits
4.7% →
TARSE 4.66 bits
4.5% →
TIARE 5.29 bits
4.1% →
RAINE 5.44 bits
3.2% →
PAISE 4.78 bits
3.0% →
IRATE 5.12 bits
2.3% →
AROSE 4.09 bits

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

C3O1U1L1D2
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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