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

FIXER

Yes, FIXER was the Wordle answer on November 9, 2021 (Wordle #143).

As an opener, it rules out about 90.3% of possible answers.

Open Solver with FIXER Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

Agent noun of fix: one who, or that which, fixes.

Noun

A chemical (sodium thiosulfate) used in photographic development that fixes the image in place, preventing further chemical reactions.

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: November 9, 2021 (#143).

See the full page for that puzzle: November 9, 2021 (#143).

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

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How FIXER performs as a guess

FIXER 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 78.8% of games, misses completely in 21.2%, and leaves about 229 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,228 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.82 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.

F___R F in the 1st position and R in the 5th position F__E_ F in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _I__R I in the 2nd position and R in the 5th position FI_ER F in the 1st position, I in the 2nd position, E in the 4th position, and R in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe FIXER 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.

4.20 Entropy (bits)
229 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
90.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 32% of evaluated openers
1.75 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FIXER 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.

3.82 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.74 Spread of game lengths
#12,228 Rank among openers
Opening with FIXER 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 3.82 average. It ranks #12,228 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
53
3 guesses
711
4 guesses
1,215
5 guesses
354
6 guesses
18
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:
EIR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
79%
Green tile
28%
All gray
21%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S I L E D
F U N G I
F I B E R
F I X E R

One example route used by the solver.

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

Feedback distribution

FIXER can come back 79 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

504 answers
347 answers
242 answers
180 answers
172 answers
105 answers
98 answers
92 answers
85 answers
71 answers
35 answers
32 answers
31 answers
31 answers
28 answers
20 answers
20 answers
20 answers
16 answers
16 answers
14 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers
8 answers
8 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4I1X8E1R1
Total: 15 points

Words With Friends

Total: 15 points

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

Try next

SAULT SLATE COAST SLANT TEASE SALTY

Strategy after playing FIXER

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FIXER:

21% chance
Suggested:
SAULT
15% chance
Suggested:
SLATE
10% chance
Suggested:
COAST

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

21.2% →
SAULT 5.89 bits
14.6% →
SLATE 5.73 bits
10.2% →
COAST 5.51 bits
7.6% →
SLANT 5.58 bits
7.2% →
TEASE 4.76 bits
4.4% →
SLANT 4.65 bits
4.1% →
COAST 3.61 bits
3.9% →
SALTY 4.15 bits
3.6% →
SLANT 4.52 bits
3.0% →
PRINT 4.22 bits

Research on FIXER

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

Optimal play

Opening with FIXER, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.80 guesses and ranks #10,904 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 FIXER can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.82; proven optimal play reaches 3.80. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.

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 FIHKSUR.

Rhymes with MIXER SIXER

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, FIXER is a kind of actor or compound.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
FIXER sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about once per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.2 of 5).

In a sentence

Tom is a bit of a fixer-upper.
© tatoeba.org contributor DJ_Saidez (CC BY 2.0 FR)
The house that Tom bought is a real fixer-upper.
© 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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).