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

ERROR

Yes, ERROR was the Wordle answer on August 29, 2021 (Wordle #71).

As an opener, it rules out about 88.0% of possible answers.

Open Solver with ERROR Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈɛɹə//ˈɛɹəɹ//ˈeɹəɹ/

Noun

The state, quality, or condition of being wrong.

Noun

A mistake; an accidental wrong action or a false statement not made deliberately.

“There was a large error in the accounts.”

Verb

To function improperly due to an error, especially accompanied by error message.

“The web-page took a long time to load and errored out.”

Verb

To show or contain an error or fault.

“The block transmission errored near the start and could not be received.”

Alternative forms: errour

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: August 29, 2021 (#71).

See the full page for that puzzle: August 29, 2021 (#71).

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

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 ERROR performs as a guess

ERROR 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 76.1% of games, misses completely in 23.9%, and leaves about 285 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,866 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.89 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___R E in the 1st position and R in the 5th position E__O_ E in the 1st position and O in the 4th position _R__R R in the 2nd position and R in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe ERROR 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.

3.91 Entropy (bits)
285 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
88.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 19% of evaluated openers
2.03 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ERROR 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.

3.89 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#13,866 Rank among openers
Opening with ERROR left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.89 average. It ranks #13,866 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
24
3 guesses
644
4 guesses
1,276
5 guesses
373
6 guesses
33
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

3/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
EOR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
32%
All gray
24%

Example solver route

R O A T E
A R D O R
E R R O R

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches ERROR in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

ERROR can come back 56 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

568 answers
477 answers
242 answers
108 answers
99 answers
98 answers
84 answers
79 answers
71 answers
64 answers
50 answers
45 answers
44 answers
41 answers
41 answers
29 answers
25 answers
21 answers
17 answers
16 answers
14 answers
10 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers
9 answers
8 answers
8 answers
7 answers
6 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

E1R1R1O1R1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 5 points

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

Try next

SAINT LEASE SLANT SONDE CADIE LEARE

Strategy after playing ERROR

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ERROR:

24% chance
Suggested:
SAINT
20% chance
Suggested:
LEASE
10% chance
Suggested:
SLANT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

23.9% →
SAINT 6.01 bits
20.1% →
LEASE 5.48 bits
10.2% →
SLANT 5.05 bits
4.5% →
SONDE 4.28 bits
4.2% →
SAINT 4.58 bits
4.1% →
SAINT 3.93 bits
3.5% →
CADIE 4.28 bits
3.3% →
LEARE 4.64 bits
3.0% →
SHART 4.54 bits
2.7% →
SLANT 4.60 bits

Research on ERROR

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

Optimal play

Opening with ERROR, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.91 guesses and ranks #13,957 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 ERROR can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.89, at or below the proven-optimal 3.91, 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 EHRUR.

Rhymes with RARER CARER

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, ERROR is a kind of act or quality.

Synonyms mistake FAULT wrongdoing

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
ERROR sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 35 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 8, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 33 of 100. Raters found it difficult to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.2 of 5).

In a sentence

This is not an error.
© tatoeba.org contributor Amastan (CC BY 2.0 FR)
This is a common error.
© tatoeba.org contributor CM (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).