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

HYENA

Yes, HYENA was the Wordle answer on December 8, 2024 (Wordle #1268).

As an opener, it rules out about 93.7% of possible answers.

Open Solver with HYENA Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /haɪˈiːnə/

Noun

Any of the medium-sized to large feliform carnivores of the family Hyaenidae, native to Africa and Asia and noted for the sound similar to laughter which they can make if excited.

Noun

A man that performs ritualized sex acts with recently widowed women and menarchal girls.

Alternative forms: hyaena, hyæna, hyen

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: December 8, 2024 (#1268).

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

Wordle Observatory

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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 HYENA performs as a guess

HYENA is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,358 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 89.0% of games, misses completely in 11.0%, and leaves about 149 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete v5 benchmark, it ranks #8,679 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.73 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___A H in the 1st position and A in the 5th position H__N_ H in the 1st position and N in the 4th position _Y__A Y in the 2nd position and A in the 5th position

Try next

TOILE CLOUT TRAIL SLART SOILY TORCH
Words starting with H Words ending with A

First-turn measures

4.73 Entropy (bits)
149 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
93.7% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 67% of evaluated openers
1.22 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opener: v5 benchmark

How HYENA 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.

3.73 Avg guesses
100.0% Win rate
0.74 Volatility
#8,679 v5 opener rank
In the complete v5 snapshot, HYENA ranks #8,679 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
59
3 guesses
826
4 guesses
1,177
5 guesses
260
6 guesses
30
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.45 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AEN

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
89%
Green tile
21%
All gray
11%

Example solver route

R O A T E
L A D E N
E N E M A
H Y E N A

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches HYENA in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

91 possible patterns. Top outcomes:

342
259
219
204
141
101
96
83
68
66
64
60
54
42
39
38
36
34
32
24
24
23
19
18
17
14
13
13
12
11

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing HYENA:

15% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
11% chance
Suggested:
CLOUT
9% chance
Suggested:
TRAIL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

14.5% →
TOILE 5.20 bits
11.0% →
CLOUT 5.79 bits
9.3% →
TRAIL 5.39 bits
8.7% →
SLART 4.94 bits
6.0% →
SOILY 4.20 bits
4.3% →
TORCH 5.19 bits
4.1% →
SIDER 4.77 bits
3.5% →
SLART 4.24 bits
2.9% →
STEER 4.56 bits
2.8% →
TRAIN 4.36 bits

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

H4Y4E1N1A1
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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