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

FLAME

Yes, FLAME was the Wordle answer on March 4, 2024 (Wordle #989).

As an opener, it rules out about 93.7% of possible answers.

Open Solver with FLAME Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /fleɪm/

Noun

The visible part of fire; a stream of burning vapour or gas, emitting light and heat.

Noun

A romantic partner or lover in a usually short-lived but passionate affair.

Adjective

Of a brilliant reddish orange-gold colour, like that of a flame.

Verb

To produce flames; to burn with a flame or blaze.

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 4, 2024 (#989).

See the full page for that puzzle: March 4, 2024 (#989).

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

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How FLAME performs as a guess

FLAME 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 83.5% of games, misses completely in 16.5%, and leaves about 150 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #4,516 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.66 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___E F in the 1st position and E in the 5th position F__M_ F in the 1st position and M in the 4th position _L__E L in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe FLAME 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.

4.91 Entropy (bits)
150 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
93.7% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 78% of evaluated openers
1.04 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FLAME 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.

3.66 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#4,516 Rank among openers
Opening with FLAME left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.66 average. It ranks #4,516 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
81
3 guesses
841
4 guesses
1,234
5 guesses
180
6 guesses
15
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:
AEL

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
84%
Green tile
38%
All gray
16%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L U M P
B L A M E
F L A M E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches FLAME in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

FLAME can come back 107 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

392 answers
259 answers
199 answers
180 answers
113 answers
98 answers
86 answers
80 answers
71 answers
65 answers
58 answers
44 answers
41 answers
38 answers
34 answers
33 answers
32 answers
30 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4L1A1M3E1
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Try next

SNORT DETER SATYR SIREN SILLY SHART

Strategy after playing FLAME

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FLAME:

17% chance
Suggested:
SNORT
11% chance
Suggested:
DETER
8% chance
Suggested:
SATYR

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

16.5% →
SNORT 5.97 bits
10.9% →
DETER 5.35 bits
8.4% →
SATYR 4.99 bits
7.6% →
SIREN 4.66 bits
4.8% →
SILLY 4.85 bits
4.1% →
SHART 4.71 bits
3.6% →
TAPER 4.38 bits
3.4% →
TALON 4.20 bits
3.0% →
LEVEL 4.05 bits
2.7% →
HUMOR 4.65 bits

Research on FLAME

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

Optimal play

Opening with FLAME, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #4,078 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.80 guesses at best and is rank #1,399 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.66, at or below the proven-optimal 3.69, 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 FLAYM.

Rhymes with CLAIM BLAME FRAME SHAME BRAME

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, FLAME is a kind of burning or shine.

Synonyms fire FLARE flaming

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
FLAME sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 12 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 B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.7 of 5).

In a sentence

The flame is going out.
© tatoeba.org contributor AlanF_US (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Turn the flame down low.
© 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; Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).