FIFTH
Yes, FIFTH was the Wordle answer on May 16, 2025 (Wordle #1427).
As an opener, it rules out about 81.2% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /fɪfθ//fɪθ//fɪft/
- Adjective
-
The ordinal form of the number five.
- Noun
-
The person or thing in the fifth position.
- Noun
-
One of five equal parts of a whole: one-fifth.
- Verb
-
To sing in the fifth voice in a polyphonic melody.
Alternative forms: fift, fiveth
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
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Used oncePast Wordle answer: May 16, 2025 (#1427).
See the full page for that puzzle: May 16, 2025 (#1427).
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →How FIFTH performs as a guess
FIFTH 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 61.2% of games, misses completely in 38.8%, and leaves about 446 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,196 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.85 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe FIFTH 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How FIFTH 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches FIFTH in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
FIFTH can come back 70 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for FIFTH; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing FIFTH
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to FIFTH.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing FIFTH:
Research on FIFTH
Game-tree analysis and word research for FIFTH, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with FIFTH, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.89 guesses and ranks #13,687 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 4.04 guesses at best and is rank #6,643 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.85, at or below the proven-optimal 3.89, 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 FIHFTH.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, FIFTH is a kind of rank or fraction.
Opposites cardinal
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- FIFTH sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 60 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
- Learner level
- Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B1); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (1.8 of 5).
In a sentence
What is the fifth thing?
It was the fifth one today.
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; Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).