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

GLOSS

Yes, GLOSS was the Wordle answer on April 26, 2026 (Wordle #1772).

As an opener, it rules out about 87.9% of possible answers.

Open Solver with GLOSS Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ɡlɒs//ɡlɔs//ɡlɑs/

Noun

A surface shine or luster.

Noun

A superficially or deceptively attractive appearance.

Verb

To give a gloss or sheen to.

Verb

To make (something) attractive by deception

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 26, 2026 (#1772).

See the full page for that puzzle: April 26, 2026 (#1772).

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

Wordle Observatory · optional

Played this Wordle?

Add your result to the public totals · about 20 seconds

Add your result and a quick difficulty rating to help explain how this puzzle played.

See the public data

The Observatory retains the selected puzzle, result, rating, optional Hard Mode answer and a random one-puzzle receipt. It stores no answer word, grid, guesses, account, email, IP-derived ID or reusable player identifier.

How verification and withdrawal work

The answer word and timezone are used transiently to verify this page, then discarded. The receipt prevents duplicate submissions and lets this browser withdraw later; anyone with that token can withdraw, so keep browser-data exports private. Read the full privacy details.

How GLOSS performs as a guess

GLOSS 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 71.6% of games, misses completely in 28.4%, and leaves about 287 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,891 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.76 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___S G in the 1st position and S in the 5th position G__S_ G 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 GLOSS.

First-turn measures

All four describe GLOSS 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.

4.03 Entropy (bits)
287 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
87.9% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 24% of evaluated openers
1.92 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How GLOSS 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.

3.76 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#9,891 Rank among openers
Opening with GLOSS left 1 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 3.76 average. It ranks #9,891 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
36
3 guesses
797
4 guesses
1,237
5 guesses
258
6 guesses
24
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)
72%
Green tile
27%
All gray
28%

Example solver route

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

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches GLOSS in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

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

675 answers
242 answers
242 answers
241 answers
100 answers
93 answers
90 answers
69 answers
63 answers
59 answers
56 answers
49 answers
34 answers
29 answers
25 answers
23 answers
20 answers
19 answers
17 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
9 answers
9 answers
9 answers
8 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

G2L1O1S1S1
Total: 6 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Try next

TIARE TONER RAILE PARTE BRACE TRADE

Strategy after playing GLOSS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing GLOSS:

28% chance
Suggested:
TIARE
10% chance
Suggested:
TONER
10% chance
Suggested:
RAILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

28.4% →
TIARE 6.26 bits
10.2% →
TONER 5.38 bits
10.2% →
RAILE 5.31 bits
10.2% →
PARTE 5.63 bits
4.2% →
BRACE 4.90 bits
3.9% →
TRADE 4.67 bits
3.8% →
RAINE 5.32 bits
2.9% →
LOYAL 4.18 bits
2.7% →
REACT 5.14 bits
2.5% →
SALLE 4.44 bits

Research on GLOSS

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

Optimal play

Opening with GLOSS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.81 guesses and ranks #10,996 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.93 guesses at best and is rank #4,954 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.76, at or below the proven-optimal 3.81, 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 GLAWS.

Rhymes with CROSS SAUCE DROSS PROSS

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, GLOSS is a kind of account or reference.

Synonyms COLOR comment colour polish glossary semblance

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
GLOSS sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 3 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.3 of 5).

In a sentence

Can you please gloss this sentence?
© tatoeba.org contributor araneo (CC BY 2.0 FR)
I can't find my lip gloss.
© tatoeba.org contributor Hybrid (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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).