5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess F tier opener

HOWDY

Yes, HOWDY was the Wordle answer on October 9, 2022 (Wordle #477).

As an opener, it rules out about 83.7% of possible answers.

Open Solver with HOWDY Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈhaʊdi/

Verb

To greet informally, especially by saying "howdy"

Noun

A wife.

Noun

A midwife.

Interjection

An informal greeting.

“Howdy folks, and welcome to our ninth annual chili cookoff!”

Alternative forms: howdie

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: October 9, 2022 (#477).

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

Wordle Observatory

How did this puzzle feel?

About the project

Add an anonymous result and difficulty rating to the public, aggregate research dataset.

We send only this answer word for puzzle verification, the puzzle number, result, difficulty vote, Hard Mode flag, timezone and a random one-puzzle receipt token. The Observatory stores no answer word, grid, guesses, account, email, IP-derived ID or reusable player identifier. The puzzle-specific receipt prevents duplicate submissions and permits withdrawal; anyone with that token can withdraw, so keep browser-data exports private. See the privacy details.

How HOWDY performs as a guess

HOWDY is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,359 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 63.8% of games, misses completely in 36.2%, and leaves about 385 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete v5 benchmark, it ranks #11,346 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.79 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.

Useful pattern pages

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

H___Y H in the 1st position and Y in the 5th position H__D_ H in the 1st position and D in the 4th position _O__Y O in the 2nd position and Y in the 5th position

Try next

RAILE SATER SLART CRATE ARIEL CARSE
Words starting with H Words ending with Y

First-turn measures

3.77 Entropy (bits)
385 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
83.7% Avg ruled out

As an opener: v5 benchmark

How HOWDY 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.

3.79 Avg guesses
100.0% Win rate
0.72 Volatility
#11,346 v5 opener rank
In the complete v5 snapshot, HOWDY ranks #11,346 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
46
3 guesses
748
4 guesses
1,218
5 guesses
327
6 guesses
14

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
O

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
64%
Green tile
28%
All gray
36%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S C O L D
D O D G Y
H O W D Y

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches HOWDY in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

75 possible patterns. Top outcomes:

854
245
190
172
151
125
59
43
40
37
31
29
28
26
25
25
24
22
21
17
13
12
12
10
9
8
8
8
7
7

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing HOWDY:

36% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
10% chance
Suggested:
SATER
8% chance
Suggested:
SLART

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

36.2% →
RAILE 6.17 bits
10.4% →
SATER 5.28 bits
8.1% →
SLART 4.80 bits
7.3% →
CRATE 5.63 bits
6.4% →
ARIEL 5.41 bits
5.3% →
CARSE 4.84 bits
2.5% →
TALER 5.22 bits
1.8% →
DROOL 4.24 bits
1.7% →
STOLE 3.54 bits
1.6% →
TARSE 4.49 bits

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

H4O1W4D2Y4
Total: 15 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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