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

CROSS

Yes, CROSS was the Wordle answer on January 31, 2023 (Wordle #591).

As an opener, it rules out about 90.6% of possible answers.

Open Solver with CROSS Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /kɹɒs//kɹɔs//kɹɑs/

Noun

A geometrical figure consisting of two straight lines or bars intersecting each other such that at least one of them is bisected by the other.

“Put a cross for a wrong answer and a tick for a right one.”

Noun

Any geometric figure having this or a similar shape, such as a cross of Lorraine or a Maltese cross.

Adjective

Transverse; lying across the main direction.

“At the end of each row were cross benches which linked the rows.”

Adjective

(of someone) Bad-tempered, angry, annoyed; (of words) tinged with anger.

“They exchanged a few cross words.”

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 31, 2023 (#591).

See the full page for that puzzle: January 31, 2023 (#591).

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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How CROSS performs as a guess

CROSS 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 76.5% of games, misses completely in 23.5%, and leaves about 223 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,831 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.72 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___S C in the 1st position and S in the 5th position C__S_ C in the 1st position and S in the 4th position _R__S R in the 2nd position and S in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe CROSS 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.

4.34 Entropy (bits)
223 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
90.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 41% of evaluated openers
1.61 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How CROSS 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.

3.72 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#7,831 Rank among openers
Opening with CROSS left 2 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 3.72 average. It ranks #7,831 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
35
3 guesses
863
4 guesses
1,201
5 guesses
232
6 guesses
20
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:
ORS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
31%
All gray
24%

Example solver route

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

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches CROSS in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

CROSS can come back 73 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

559 answers
256 answers
223 answers
182 answers
124 answers
110 answers
106 answers
76 answers
72 answers
67 answers
49 answers
47 answers
38 answers
31 answers
28 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
22 answers
19 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

C3R1O1S1S1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Try next

ANILE LAREE LEANT TONAL DIANE LIANE

Strategy after playing CROSS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing CROSS:

24% chance
Suggested:
ANILE
11% chance
Suggested:
LAREE
9% chance
Suggested:
LEANT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

23.5% →
ANILE 6.20 bits
10.8% →
LAREE 5.06 bits
9.4% →
LEANT 5.52 bits
7.7% →
TONAL 5.04 bits
5.2% →
DIANE 5.23 bits
4.6% →
LIANE 5.16 bits
4.5% →
TARRE 4.51 bits
3.2% →
STRAE 4.47 bits
3.0% →
BLATE 4.63 bits
2.8% →
LIANE 5.00 bits

Research on CROSS

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

Optimal play

Opening with CROSS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.77 guesses and ranks #9,246 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.92 guesses at best and is rank #4,667 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.72, at or below the proven-optimal 3.77, 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 KRAWS.

Rhymes with SAUCE GLOSS DROSS PROSS

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, CROSS is a kind of emblem or construction.

Synonyms COVER mark TRACK crossing hybrid span

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
CROSS sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 100 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: 61 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.5 of 5).

In a sentence

Are you cross with me?
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Do you see the cross?
© tatoeba.org contributor jimkillock (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).