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

INDEX

Yes, INDEX was the Wordle answer on August 15, 2023 (Wordle #787).

As an opener, it rules out about 89.1% of possible answers.

Open Solver with INDEX Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈɪndɛks/[ˈɪndæks]/ˈɪndeks/

Noun

An alphabetical listing of items and their location.

“The index of a book lists words or expressions and the pages of the book upon which they are to be found.”

Noun

The index finger; the forefinger.

Verb

To arrange an index for something, especially a long text.

“MySQL does not index short words and common words.”

Verb

To inventory; to take stock.

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: August 15, 2023 (#787).

See the full page for that puzzle: August 15, 2023 (#787).

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 INDEX performs as a guess

INDEX 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 76.5% of games, misses completely in 23.5%, and leaves about 259 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,423 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.77 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.

I__E_ I in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _N__X N in the 2nd position and X in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe INDEX 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.

4.07 Entropy (bits)
259 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
89.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 26% of evaluated openers
1.88 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How INDEX 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.

3.77 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#10,423 Rank among openers
Opening with INDEX left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.77 average. It ranks #10,423 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
48
3 guesses
754
4 guesses
1,253
5 guesses
276
6 guesses
19
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:
EIN

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
20%
All gray
24%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S I L E N
I N D E X

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches INDEX in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

INDEX can come back 74 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

559 answers
398 answers
230 answers
168 answers
158 answers
93 answers
84 answers
69 answers
67 answers
60 answers
46 answers
39 answers
33 answers
32 answers
27 answers
24 answers
22 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
14 answers
14 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers
10 answers
8 answers
7 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

I1N1D2E1X8
Total: 13 points

Words With Friends

Total: 14 points

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

Try next

ROAST SLART SORAL COAST GIANT STIRE

Strategy after playing INDEX

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing INDEX:

24% chance
Suggested:
ROAST
17% chance
Suggested:
SLART
10% chance
Suggested:
SLART

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

23.5% →
ROAST 6.01 bits
16.8% →
SLART 5.91 bits
9.7% →
SLART 5.38 bits
7.1% →
SORAL 4.60 bits
6.7% →
COAST 5.12 bits
3.9% →
GIANT 4.39 bits
3.5% →
STIRE 4.38 bits
2.9% →
WOULD 4.81 bits
2.8% →
CARNE 4.50 bits
2.5% →
REATE 4.80 bits

Research on INDEX

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

Optimal play

Opening with INDEX, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.80 guesses and ranks #10,565 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 INDEX can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.77, at or below the proven-optimal 3.80, 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

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it IHNDEHKS.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, INDEX is a kind of scale or fact.

Synonyms POWER indicator

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
INDEX sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 37 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 9, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 57 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.1 of 5).

In a sentence

Is there an index to the book?
© tatoeba.org contributor DylanTonic (CC BY 2.0 FR)
The price index hit an all-time high.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (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).