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

DREAD

Yes, DREAD was the Wordle answer on July 8, 2025 (Wordle #1480).

As an opener, it rules out about 92.4% of possible answers.

Open Solver with DREAD Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /dɹɛd/

Verb

To fear greatly.

Verb

To anticipate with fear.

“I'm dreading getting the results of the test, as it could decide my whole life.”

Noun

Great fear in view of impending evil; fearful apprehension of danger; anticipatory terror.

“My visit to the doctor is filling me with dread.”

Noun

Reverential or respectful fear; awe.

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 8, 2025 (#1480).

See the full page for that puzzle: July 8, 2025 (#1480).

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

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How DREAD performs as a guess

DREAD 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 82.2% of games, misses completely in 17.8%, and leaves about 181 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,396 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.75 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___D D in the 1st position and D in the 5th position D__A_ D in the 1st position and A in the 4th position _R__D R in the 2nd position and D in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe DREAD 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.

4.59 Entropy (bits)
181 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
92.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 58% of evaluated openers
1.36 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How DREAD 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.

3.75 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.74 Spread of game lengths
#9,396 Rank among openers
Opening with DREAD left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.74 means those games clustered within about 0.74 of a guess of the 3.75 average. It ranks #9,396 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
60
3 guesses
807
4 guesses
1,168
5 guesses
291
6 guesses
24
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
2 vowels
Common:
AER

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
29%
All gray
18%

Example solver route

R O A T E
G L E A M
W R A C K
B R E A D
D R E A D

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches DREAD in 5 guesses. See the trap-family guide for similar endgames.

Feedback distribution

DREAD can come back 92 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

423 answers
274 answers
255 answers
180 answers
165 answers
117 answers
82 answers
78 answers
72 answers
71 answers
49 answers
42 answers
37 answers
32 answers
30 answers
27 answers
25 answers
21 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

D2R1E1A1D2
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 7 points

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

Try next

SOILY SLANT TOILE SOREE STALE TORUS

Strategy after playing DREAD

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing DREAD:

18% chance
Suggested:
SOILY
12% chance
Suggested:
SLANT
11% chance
Suggested:
TOILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.8% →
SOILY 5.70 bits
11.5% →
SLANT 5.33 bits
10.7% →
TOILE 5.47 bits
7.6% →
SOREE 4.52 bits
7.0% →
STALE 4.96 bits
4.9% →
TORUS 5.18 bits
3.5% →
CAROM 4.20 bits
3.3% →
PRINT 4.07 bits
3.0% →
PALET 3.82 bits
3.0% →
SLEET 4.97 bits

Research on DREAD

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

Optimal play

Opening with DREAD, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses and ranks #8,514 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 DREAD can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.75, at or below the proven-optimal 3.76, 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 DREHD.

Rhymes with AHEAD BREAD TREAD SHRED STEAD

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, DREAD is a kind of fear or feel.

Synonyms fear terrible AWFUL horrific frightening dire

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
DREAD sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 4 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 10, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 31 of 100. Raters found it difficult to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with internal bodily sensation (4.4 of 5).

In a sentence

I dread the cold winter.
© tatoeba.org contributor IMer (CC BY 2.0 FR)
This filled me with dread.
© tatoeba.org contributor Amastan (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).