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

HORSE

Yes, HORSE was the Wordle answer on March 7, 2023 (Wordle #626).

As an opener, it rules out about 95.7% of possible answers.

Open Solver with HORSE Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /hɔːs//hoːs//hoɹs/

Noun

A hoofed mammal, Equus ferus caballus, often used throughout history for riding and draft work.

“A cowboy's greatest friend is his horse.”

Noun

Equipment with legs.

“She's scored very highly with the parallel bars; let's see how she does with the horse.”

Verb

Synonym of horse around.

Verb

To play mischievous pranks on.

Alternative forms: harse, hawss, hoss

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: March 7, 2023 (#626).

See the full page for that puzzle: March 7, 2023 (#626).

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

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How HORSE performs as a guess

HORSE 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 88.0% of games, misses completely in 12.0%, and leaves about 102 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,214 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.62 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.

H___E H in the 1st position and E in the 5th position H__S_ H in the 1st position and S in the 4th position _O__E O in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe HORSE 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.

5.42 Entropy (bits)
102 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
95.7% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 97% of evaluated openers
0.53 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How HORSE 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.

3.62 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.74 Spread of game lengths
#2,214 Rank among openers
Opening with HORSE solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.74 means those games clustered within about 0.74 of a guess of the 3.62 average. It ranks #2,214 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
91
3 guesses
956
4 guesses
1,077
5 guesses
203
6 guesses
26
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:
EORS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
88%
Green tile
39%
All gray
12%

Example solver route

R O A T E
G N A S H
H O R S E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches HORSE in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

HORSE can come back 132 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

286 answers
178 answers
176 answers
130 answers
126 answers
123 answers
94 answers
91 answers
81 answers
68 answers
57 answers
50 answers
49 answers
39 answers
31 answers
29 answers
28 answers
28 answers
27 answers
24 answers
23 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

H4O1R1S1E1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 7 points

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

Try next

PLAIT ARIEL LEANT AGILE SLANT TRAIN

Strategy after playing HORSE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing HORSE:

12% chance
Suggested:
PLAIT
7% chance
Suggested:
ARIEL
7% chance
Suggested:
LEANT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.0% →
PLAIT 5.61 bits
7.5% →
ARIEL 4.17 bits
7.4% →
LEANT 5.38 bits
5.5% →
AGILE 4.62 bits
5.3% →
SLANT 5.23 bits
5.2% →
TRAIN 5.15 bits
4.0% →
TALON 5.04 bits
3.8% →
MOLDY 4.17 bits
3.4% →
ADORN 3.95 bits
2.9% →
PINCH 4.64 bits

Research on HORSE

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

Optimal play

Opening with HORSE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.62 guesses and ranks #704 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 HORSE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.62, at or below the proven-optimal 3.62, 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 HAWRS.

Rhymes with FORCE MORSE CORSE

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, HORSE is a kind of equine or equipment.

Synonyms knight buck cavalry

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
HORSE sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 58 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A1); among the first words English learners study.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 4, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 97 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.6 of 5).

In a sentence

Do you have a horse?
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
I don't have a horse.
© tatoeba.org contributor mailohilohi (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; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).