5 FiveLetterWords
Accepted guess Not a possible answer C tier opener

GERMS

GERMS is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.

As an opener, it rules out about 93.1% of possible answers.

Open Solver with GERMS Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of germ

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

No

The solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.

Past Wordle answer

Not used yet

No past answer date found.

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

How GERMS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts GERMS as a guess, but the solver does not list it as a possible answer.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 83.1% of games, misses completely in 16.9%, and leaves about 162 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete v5 benchmark, it ranks #5,020 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.67 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.

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

G___S G in the 1st position and S in the 5th position G__M_ G in the 1st position and M in the 4th position _E__S E in the 2nd position and S in the 5th position

Try next

TALON ANILE SLANT TRIED TRIAD THALE
Words starting with G Words ending with S

First-turn measures

4.72 Entropy (bits)
162 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
93.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 66% of evaluated openers
1.23 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opener: v5 benchmark

How GERMS 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.

3.67 Avg guesses
100.0% Win rate
0.68 Volatility
#5,020 v5 opener rank
In the complete v5 snapshot, GERMS ranks #5,020 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
58
3 guesses
876
4 guesses
1,211
5 guesses
200
6 guesses
8
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.45 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
ERS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
83%
Green tile
25%
All gray
17%

Feedback distribution

93 possible patterns. Top outcomes:

399
240
208
190
185
132
84
66
60
57
54
51
44
33
32
26
24
21
21
21
20
18
18
17
17
17
16
15
15
14

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing GERMS:

17% chance
Suggested:
TALON
10% chance
Suggested:
ANILE
9% chance
Suggested:
SLANT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

16.9% →
TALON 5.77 bits
10.2% →
ANILE 5.49 bits
8.8% →
SLANT 5.24 bits
8.1% →
TRIED 4.37 bits
7.8% →
TRIAD 5.28 bits
5.6% →
SLANT 4.89 bits
3.6% →
THALE 4.67 bits
2.8% →
MODAL 4.58 bits
2.5% →
LOGIN 4.69 bits
2.4% →
COALY 4.47 bits

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

G2E1R1M3S1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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