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

CUMIN

Yes, CUMIN was the Wordle answer on May 13, 2024 (Wordle #1059).

As an opener, it rules out about 88.7% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈkjuːmɪn//ˈkʌmɪn//ˈkumɪn/

Noun

The flowering plant Cuminum cyminum, in the family Apiaceae.

“Cumin is native to the region from the eastern Mediterranean to India.”

Noun

Its aromatic long seed, used as a spice, notably in Indian, Middle Eastern, and Mexican cookery.

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: May 13, 2024 (#1059).

See the full page for that puzzle: May 13, 2024 (#1059).

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

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How CUMIN performs as a guess

CUMIN 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 70.7% of games, misses completely in 29.3%, and leaves about 267 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,482 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.64 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.

First-turn measures

All four describe CUMIN 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.

4.40 Entropy (bits)
267 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
88.7% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 45% of evaluated openers
1.54 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How CUMIN 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.

3.64 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#3,482 Rank among openers
Opening with CUMIN left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.64 average. It ranks #3,482 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
56
3 guesses
933
4 guesses
1,167
5 guesses
180
6 guesses
16
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:
INU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
71%
Green tile
27%
All gray
29%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I M Y
C U M I N

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches CUMIN in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

CUMIN can come back 96 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

696 answers
231 answers
145 answers
114 answers
101 answers
98 answers
94 answers
92 answers
89 answers
66 answers
59 answers
48 answers
36 answers
32 answers
22 answers
21 answers
19 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

C3U1M3I1N1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Strategy after playing CUMIN

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing CUMIN:

29% chance
Suggested:
TARSE
10% chance
Suggested:
STILE
6% chance
Suggested:
ROATE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

29.3%
TARSE 6.40 bits
9.7%
STILE 5.31 bits
6.1%
ROATE 5.28 bits
4.8%
STORE 5.53 bits
4.3%
TARGE 4.40 bits
4.1%
SOARE 5.39 bits
4.0%
REACT 5.32 bits
3.9%
SOARE 5.26 bits
3.7%
SLYER 4.64 bits
2.8%
TALER 5.07 bits

Research on CUMIN

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

Optimal play

Opening with CUMIN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,650 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.83 guesses at best and is rank #2,240 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, at or below the proven-optimal 3.71, 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

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it KYOOMUHN.

Rhymes with HUMAN LUMEN RUMEN

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, CUMIN is a kind of herb or seed.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
CUMIN sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about once per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.

In a sentence

Where can I buy cumin?
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
He bought cumin in the supermarket.
© tatoeba.org contributor Tom9358 (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).