Accepted guess Not a possible answer C tier for first-turn info

GLOAM

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Verb

To begin to grow dark; to grow dusky.

Verb

To be sullen or morose.

Noun

Clipping of gloaming (“twilight”).

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Etymology

Back-formation from gloaming.

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

One syllable Say it GLOHM.

Rhymes with GNOME COMBE

Related meanings

Synonyms fall twilight dusk nightfall

Use GLOAM in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 91.9% of possible answers.

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

No completed appearance

No appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.

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

How GLOAM performs as a guess

Wordle accepts GLOAM 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 79.7% of games, misses completely in 20.3%, and leaves about 193 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,053 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.

First-turn measures

All four describe GLOAM 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.

4.65 Entropy (bits)
193 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
91.9% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How GLOAM 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% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#5,053 Rank among openers
Opening with GLOAM solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.67 average. It ranks #5,053 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
58
3 guesses
895
4 guesses
1,177
5 guesses
212
6 guesses
12

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ALO

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
80%
Green tile
28%
All gray
20%

Feedback distribution

GLOAM can come back 98 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

483 answers
338 answers
177 answers
140 answers
131 answers
99 answers
72 answers
65 answers
60 answers
56 answers
55 answers
50 answers
46 answers
46 answers
42 answers
36 answers
27 answers
27 answers
26 answers
26 answers
25 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

G2L1O1A1M3
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing GLOAM

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing GLOAM:

20% chance
Suggested:
SIREN
14% chance
Suggested:
TARSE
7% chance
Suggested:
RONTE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

20.3% →
SIREN 6.03 bits
14.2% →
TARSE 5.64 bits
7.4% →
RONTE 5.36 bits
5.9% →
SILER 4.91 bits
5.5% →
STURE 4.66 bits
4.2% →
SALLE 4.86 bits
3.0% →
SEITY 4.93 bits
2.7% →
SHIRE 4.78 bits
2.5% →
CRISE 4.68 bits
2.3% →
SETER 4.36 bits

Research on GLOAM

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

Optimal play

Opening with GLOAM, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,269 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 #1,358 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 3.71, 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.

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).