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

GLEAM

Yes, GLEAM was the Wordle answer on April 27, 2024 (Wordle #1043).

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

Open Solver with GLEAM Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ɡliːm//ɡlim/

Noun

An appearance of light, especially one which is indistinct or small, or short-lived.

Noun

An indistinct sign of something; a glimpse or hint.

“The rescue workers preserved a gleam of optimism that the trapped miners might still survive.”

Verb

Chiefly in conjunction with an adverb: to cause (light) to shine.

Verb

To shine, especially in an indistinct or intermittent manner; to glisten, to glitter.

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: April 27, 2024 (#1043).

See the full page for that puzzle: April 27, 2024 (#1043).

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

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How GLEAM performs as a guess

GLEAM 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 84.5% of games, misses completely in 15.5%, and leaves about 165 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,314 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.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

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

G___M G in the 1st position and M in the 5th position G__A_ G in the 1st position and A in the 4th position _L__M L in the 2nd position and M in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe GLEAM 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.

4.81 Entropy (bits)
165 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
93.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 72% of evaluated openers
1.14 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How GLEAM 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
99.87% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#5,314 Rank among openers
Opening with GLEAM left 3 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 3.67 average. It ranks #5,314 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
75
3 guesses
840
4 guesses
1,219
5 guesses
203
6 guesses
13
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
25%
All gray
16%

Example solver route

R O A T E
L A D E N
B E E C H
G L E A M

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches GLEAM in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

GLEAM can come back 104 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

367 answers
338 answers
254 answers
149 answers
103 answers
81 answers
79 answers
69 answers
63 answers
55 answers
50 answers
49 answers
45 answers
41 answers
40 answers
39 answers
37 answers
30 answers
26 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

G2L1E1A1M3
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Try next

SNORT SIREE TRAIN STARE SILLY SETER

Strategy after playing GLEAM

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing GLEAM:

15% chance
Suggested:
SNORT
14% chance
Suggested:
SIREE
11% chance
Suggested:
TRAIN

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

15.5% →
SNORT 5.97 bits
14.2% →
SIREE 5.32 bits
10.7% →
TRAIN 5.28 bits
6.3% →
STARE 4.95 bits
4.3% →
SILLY 4.87 bits
3.4% →
SETER 4.78 bits
3.3% →
BOREE 4.21 bits
2.9% →
MOUTH 4.89 bits
2.7% →
STALL 4.22 bits
2.3% →
ROUGH 4.36 bits

Research on GLEAM

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

Optimal play

Opening with GLEAM, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #4,893 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 #1,261 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.67, at or below the proven-optimal 3.70, 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 GLEEM.

Rhymes with DREAM CREAM THEME STEAM CREME

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, GLEAM is a kind of shine or flash.

Synonyms SHINE glow glitter glimmer gleaming

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
GLEAM sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
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 (4.9 of 5).

In a sentence

The last gleam of the sun is dying away.
© tatoeba.org contributor Hybrid (CC BY 2.0 FR)
She's happy and you can tell by the gleam in her eyes.
© tatoeba.org contributor Nuel (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).