GLEAN
Yes, GLEAN was the Wordle answer on August 11, 2022 (Wordle #418).
As an opener, it rules out about 94.4% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ɡliːn//ɡlin/
- Verb
-
To collect (fruit, grain, or other produce) from a field, an orchard, etc., after the main gathering or harvest.
- Verb
-
To gather (something, now chiefly something intangible such as experience or information) in small amounts over a period of time, often with some difficulty; to scrape together.
- Noun
-
A collection of something made by gleaning.
- Noun
-
The afterbirth or placenta of an animal, especially a cow or sheep.
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
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Used oncePast Wordle answer: August 11, 2022 (#418).
See the full page for that puzzle: August 11, 2022 (#418).
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →How GLEAN performs as a guess
GLEAN 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 86.6% of games, misses completely in 13.4%, and leaves about 132 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,476 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.63 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe GLEAN 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How GLEAN 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches GLEAN in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
GLEAN can come back 122 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for GLEAN; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing GLEAN
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to GLEAN.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing GLEAN:
Research on GLEAN
Game-tree analysis and word research for GLEAN, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with GLEAN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.67 guesses and ranks #2,690 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 GLEAN can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.63, at or below the proven-optimal 3.67, 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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, GLEAN is a kind of collect.
Synonyms harvest reap
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- GLEAN sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.7 of 5).
In a sentence
What can you glean from his search history?
The lion doesn't glean ants.
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).