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

DEATH

Yes, DEATH was the Wordle answer on July 10, 2021 (Wordle #21).

As an opener, it rules out about 94.8% of possible answers.

Open Solver with DEATH Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈdɛθ/[ˈdɛθ]/ˈdiːθ/

Noun

The cessation of life and all associated processes; the end of an organism's existence as an entity independent from its environment and its return to an inert, nonliving state.

“My grandfather died a violent death, which saddened the whole family.”

Noun

The personification of death as a (usually male) hooded figure with a scythe; the Grim Reaper.

“When death walked in, a chill spread through the room.”

Alternative forms: deth, deeeath

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: July 10, 2021 (#21).

See the full page for that puzzle: July 10, 2021 (#21).

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 DEATH performs as a guess

DEATH 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 86.7% of games, misses completely in 13.3%, and leaves about 125 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,533 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.63 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.

D___H D in the 1st position and H in the 5th position D__T_ D in the 1st position and T in the 4th position _E__H E in the 2nd position and H in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe DEATH 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.

5.15 Entropy (bits)
125 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
94.8% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 90% of evaluated openers
0.79 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How DEATH 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.

3.63 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#2,533 Rank among openers
Opening with DEATH left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.63 average. It ranks #2,533 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
69
3 guesses
928
4 guesses
1,167
5 guesses
180
6 guesses
8
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:
AET

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
87%
Green tile
32%
All gray
13%

Example solver route

R O A T E
D E A T H

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches DEATH in 2 guesses.

Feedback distribution

DEATH can come back 111 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

316 answers
269 answers
197 answers
125 answers
122 answers
89 answers
85 answers
83 answers
71 answers
66 answers
57 answers
48 answers
41 answers
41 answers
41 answers
36 answers
34 answers
33 answers
30 answers
28 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
18 answers
16 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

D2E1A1T1H4
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Try next

SOILY POIRE CAROL LARGE SNORT SIREE

Strategy after playing DEATH

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing DEATH:

13% chance
Suggested:
SOILY
11% chance
Suggested:
POIRE
8% chance
Suggested:
CAROL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

13.3% →
SOILY 5.69 bits
11.3% →
POIRE 5.24 bits
8.3% →
CAROL 5.29 bits
5.3% →
LARGE 4.67 bits
5.1% →
SNORT 5.31 bits
3.7% →
SIREE 4.72 bits
3.6% →
SIREN 4.39 bits
3.5% →
CLASP 4.45 bits
3.0% →
TALON 4.42 bits
2.8% →
RIONE 4.64 bits

Research on DEATH

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

Optimal play

Opening with DEATH, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #2,027 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 DEATH can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.63, at or below the proven-optimal 3.66, 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 DEHTH.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, DEATH is a kind of change or phenomenon.

Synonyms last end DYING destruction demise expiry

Opposites BIRTH

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
DEATH sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 251 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: 56 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.6 of 5).

In a sentence

What was the time of death?
© tatoeba.org contributor Hybrid (CC BY 2.0 FR)
I love you to death.
© 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).