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

FLOSS

Yes, FLOSS was the Wordle answer on July 20, 2021 (Wordle #31).

As an opener, it rules out about 86.3% of possible answers.

Open Solver with FLOSS Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /flɒs//flɔs//flɑs/

Noun

A thread used to clean the gaps between the teeth.

Noun

Raw silk fibres.

Verb

To clean the area between (the teeth) using floss.

“I don't floss very often.”

Verb

To show off, especially by exhibiting one's wealth or talent.

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: July 20, 2021 (#31).

See the full page for that puzzle: July 20, 2021 (#31).

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

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How FLOSS performs as a guess

FLOSS 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 69.3% of games, misses completely in 30.7%, and leaves about 324 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,664 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.75 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___S F in the 1st position and S in the 5th position F__S_ F in the 1st position and S in the 4th position _L__S L in the 2nd position and S in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe FLOSS 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.

3.86 Entropy (bits)
324 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
86.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 17% of evaluated openers
2.08 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FLOSS 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.

3.75 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#9,664 Rank among openers
Opening with FLOSS left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.75 average. It ranks #9,664 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
41
3 guesses
774
4 guesses
1,271
5 guesses
248
6 guesses
17
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

4/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
LOS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
69%
Green tile
27%
All gray
31%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I N K
F L O S S

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches FLOSS in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

FLOSS can come back 71 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

729 answers
268 answers
253 answers
245 answers
102 answers
90 answers
73 answers
67 answers
58 answers
54 answers
46 answers
39 answers
27 answers
25 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
17 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
8 answers
8 answers
7 answers
7 answers
7 answers
6 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4L1O1S1S1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Try next

TIARE TONER RAILE PARTE BRANE BRACE

Strategy after playing FLOSS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FLOSS:

31% chance
Suggested:
TIARE
11% chance
Suggested:
TONER
11% chance
Suggested:
RAILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

30.7% →
TIARE 6.26 bits
11.3% →
TONER 5.38 bits
10.7% →
RAILE 5.37 bits
10.3% →
PARTE 5.63 bits
4.3% →
BRANE 4.68 bits
3.8% →
BRACE 4.87 bits
3.1% →
LOYAL 4.17 bits
2.8% →
REACT 5.22 bits
2.4% →
SALLE 4.44 bits
2.3% →
PEART 3.80 bits

Research on FLOSS

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

Optimal play

Opening with FLOSS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.84 guesses and ranks #12,153 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.96 guesses at best and is rank #5,444 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.75, at or below the proven-optimal 3.84, 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 FLAHS.

Rhymes with ABBAS FOSSE GOSSE

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, FLOSS is a kind of thread or yarn.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
FLOSS sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 2 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.

In a sentence

Do you have dental floss?
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
I floss my teeth every day.
© 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).