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

DWARF

Yes, DWARF was the Wordle answer on June 30, 2021 (Wordle #11).

As an opener, it rules out about 89.0% of possible answers.

Open Solver with DWARF Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /dwɔɹf//dwɔːf/

Noun

Any member of a race of beings from (especially Scandinavian and other Germanic) folklore, usually depicted as having some sort of supernatural powers and being skilled in crafting and metalworking, often as short with long beards, and sometimes as clashing with elves.

Noun

A person of short stature, often one whose limbs are disproportionately small in relation to the body as compared with typical adults, usually as the result of a genetic condition.

Adjective

Miniature.

“The specimen is a very dwarf form of the plant.”

Verb

To render (much) smaller, turn into a dwarf (version).

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: June 30, 2021 (#11).

See the full page for that puzzle: June 30, 2021 (#11).

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

Wordle Observatory · optional

Played this Wordle?

Add your result to the public totals · about 20 seconds

Add your result and a quick difficulty rating to help explain how this puzzle played.

See the public data

The Observatory retains the selected puzzle, result, rating, optional Hard Mode answer and a random one-puzzle receipt. It stores no answer word, grid, guesses, account, email, IP-derived ID or reusable player identifier.

How verification and withdrawal work

The answer word and timezone are used transiently to verify this page, then discarded. The receipt prevents duplicate submissions and lets this browser withdraw later; anyone with that token can withdraw, so keep browser-data exports private. Read the full privacy details.

How DWARF performs as a guess

DWARF 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 74.4% of games, misses completely in 25.6%, and leaves about 262 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,661 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.73 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__R_ D in the 1st position and R in the 4th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe DWARF 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.

4.17 Entropy (bits)
262 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
89.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 31% of evaluated openers
1.78 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How DWARF 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.

3.73 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#8,661 Rank among openers
Opening with DWARF solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.73 average. It ranks #8,661 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
52
3 guesses
800
4 guesses
1,235
5 guesses
253
6 guesses
13
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
1 vowels
Common:
AR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
74%
Green tile
24%
All gray
26%

Example solver route

R O A T E
C H I L D
D R A N K
D W A R F

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches DWARF in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

DWARF can come back 82 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

608 answers
304 answers
295 answers
144 answers
139 answers
89 answers
62 answers
59 answers
50 answers
47 answers
47 answers
44 answers
39 answers
36 answers
33 answers
29 answers
26 answers
25 answers
21 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
9 answers
8 answers
8 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

D2W4A1R1F4
Total: 12 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Try next

TOILE SALET TOISE SLICE LATER TUILE

Strategy after playing DWARF

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing DWARF:

26% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
13% chance
Suggested:
SALET
12% chance
Suggested:
TOISE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

25.6% →
TOILE 6.07 bits
12.8% →
SALET 5.31 bits
12.4% →
TOISE 5.44 bits
6.1% →
SLICE 5.26 bits
5.9% →
LATER 4.70 bits
3.7% →
TUILE 5.26 bits
2.6% →
TUILE 4.93 bits
2.5% →
SHOTE 4.71 bits
2.1% →
ANOLE 4.46 bits
2.0% →
SINCE 3.98 bits

Research on DWARF

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

Optimal play

Opening with DWARF, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses and ranks #8,690 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 DWARF can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.73, 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 DWAWRF.

Rhymes with WHARF MORPH

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, DWARF is a kind of someone or fairy.

Synonyms shadow midget GNOME

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
DWARF sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 6 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 7, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 80 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.8 of 5).

In a sentence

A dwarf married a big man.
© tatoeba.org contributor adiante19 (CC BY 2.0 FR)
The dwarf stood in the door.
© tatoeba.org contributor Barend (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).