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

EARLY

Yes, EARLY was the Wordle answer on March 8, 2024 (Wordle #993).

As an opener, it rules out about 95.8% of possible answers.

Open Solver with EARLY Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈɜːli//ˈɝli//ɚ̞li/

Adjective

At a time in advance of the usual or expected event.

“at eleven, we went for an early lunch; she began reading at an early age; his mother suffered an early death”

Adjective

Arriving a time before expected; sooner than on time.

“You're early today! I don't usually see you before nine o'clock.”

Noun

A shift (scheduled work period) that takes place early in the day.

Adverb

At a time before expected; sooner than usual.

“We finished the project an hour sooner than scheduled, so we left early.”

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: March 8, 2024 (#993).

See the full page for that puzzle: March 8, 2024 (#993).

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

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How EARLY performs as a guess

EARLY 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 90.6% of games, misses completely in 9.4%, and leaves about 99 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #4,065 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.65 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.

E___Y E in the 1st position and Y in the 5th position E__L_ E in the 1st position and L in the 4th position _A__Y A in the 2nd position and Y in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe EARLY 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.

5.31 Entropy (bits)
99 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
95.8% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 95% of evaluated openers
0.63 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How EARLY 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.

3.65 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.74 Spread of game lengths
#4,065 Rank among openers
Opening with EARLY left 2 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 3.65 average. It ranks #4,065 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
86
3 guesses
906
4 guesses
1,112
5 guesses
226
6 guesses
21
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:
AELR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
91%
Green tile
36%
All gray
9%

Example solver route

R O A T E
G L E A M
A B Y S S
E A R L Y

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches EARLY in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

EARLY can come back 121 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

222 answers
216 answers
195 answers
126 answers
108 answers
101 answers
92 answers
91 answers
89 answers
86 answers
78 answers
66 answers
64 answers
46 answers
44 answers
43 answers
37 answers
34 answers
31 answers
28 answers
26 answers
23 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
19 answers
19 answers
19 answers
19 answers
17 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

E1A1R1L1Y4
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Try next

HOIST SEINE TOISE PRINT DUSTY STAIN

Strategy after playing EARLY

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing EARLY:

9% chance
Suggested:
HOIST
9% chance
Suggested:
SEINE
8% chance
Suggested:
TOISE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

9.4% →
HOIST 5.86 bits
9.1% →
SEINE 5.61 bits
8.2% →
TOISE 4.60 bits
5.3% →
PRINT 4.89 bits
4.5% →
DUSTY 3.88 bits
4.3% →
STAIN 5.17 bits
3.9% →
CLUNG 4.54 bits
3.8% →
GRANT 4.10 bits
3.7% →
STANE 4.53 bits
3.6% →
SEINE 4.43 bits

Research on EARLY

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

Optimal play

Opening with EARLY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.67 guesses and ranks #2,729 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 EARLY can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, at or below the proven-optimal 3.67, 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 URLEE.

Rhymes with CURLY SURLY BURLY HURLY

Related meanings

Synonyms OTHER former new old YOUNG past

Opposites middle late old past

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
EARLY sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 269 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 A1); among the first words English learners study.

In a sentence

I like to be early.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
I have to get up early.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (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.