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

HUMPH

Yes, HUMPH was the Wordle answer on June 22, 2021 (Wordle #3).

As an opener, it rules out about 74.1% of possible answers.

Open Solver with HUMPH Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /h(ʌ)mf/[həɱf][hɱ̩f]

Interjection

A sound, usually made with a closed mouth pouting, indicating annoyance, indignation, disapproval, doubt, or sighing.

Verb

To utter "humph!" in doubt or disapproval.

Alternative forms: hmph, hmpf, humf

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: June 22, 2021 (#3).

See the full page for that puzzle: June 22, 2021 (#3).

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 HUMPH performs as a guess

HUMPH 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 51.6% of games, misses completely in 48.4%, and leaves about 614 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,889 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.89 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___H H in the 1st position and H in the 5th position H__P_ H in the 1st position and P in the 4th position _U__H U in the 2nd position and H in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe HUMPH 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.

3.11 Entropy (bits)
614 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
74.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 2% of evaluated openers
2.84 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How HUMPH 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.

3.89 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#13,889 Rank among openers
Opening with HUMPH left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.89 average. It ranks #13,889 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
30
3 guesses
631
4 guesses
1,281
5 guesses
380
6 guesses
30
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:
U

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
52%
Green tile
19%
All gray
48%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I M Y
H U M P H

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches HUMPH in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

HUMPH can come back 55 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

1148 answers
197 answers
177 answers
153 answers
135 answers
121 answers
75 answers
43 answers
33 answers
28 answers
26 answers
24 answers
18 answers
17 answers
15 answers
14 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
9 answers
9 answers
9 answers
8 answers
5 answers
4 answers
4 answers
4 answers
4 answers
4 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

H4U1M3P3H4
Total: 15 points

Words With Friends

Total: 16 points

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

Try next

ARIEL RAISE STONE MAIRE STARE STIRE

Strategy after playing HUMPH

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing HUMPH:

48% chance
Suggested:
ARIEL
8% chance
Suggested:
RAISE
7% chance
Suggested:
STONE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

48.4% →
ARIEL 6.09 bits
8.3% →
RAISE 5.72 bits
7.5% →
STONE 5.24 bits
6.4% →
MAIRE 5.50 bits
5.7% →
STARE 5.53 bits
5.1% →
STIRE 4.73 bits
3.2% →
CARLE 4.77 bits
1.8% →
TIARE 4.72 bits
1.4% →
COATE 4.32 bits
1.2% →
AROSE 4.35 bits

Research on HUMPH

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

Optimal play

Opening with HUMPH, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.91 guesses and ranks #14,076 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 4.03 guesses at best and is rank #6,551 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.89, at or below the proven-optimal 3.91, 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 HUHMF.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
HUMPH 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).