JAMES
JAMES is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /d͡ʒeɪmz/
- Proper noun
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The twentieth book of the New Testament of the Bible, the general epistle of James.
- Proper noun
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One of two Apostles, James the Greater and James the Less, often identified with James, brother of Jesus.
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
The English New Testament form of Jacob, from Middle English James, from Old French James, from Vulgar Latin Iācōmus, spoken and altered pronunciation of Latin Iācōbus, from Ancient Greek Ἰάκωβος (Iákōbos), from Ἰακώβ (Iakṓb), from Hebrew יַעֲקֹב (Yaʿăqōḇ). Doublet of Jacques, Jacob, Iago, Jago, Yago, Hamish, Seamus, Tiago, Santiago, and Yaakov.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
One syllable Say it JAYMZ.
Rhymes with GAMES NAMES DAMES TAMES HAMES
Related meanings
Synonyms PRESS BLOCK fix hole pack mess
In a sentence
No one was after James.
James called it a day.
Use JAMES in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 92.1% of possible answers.
Wordle status
A word can be a playable guess without being a possible answer.
Playable guess
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
NoThe solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.
Past Wordle answer
No completed appearanceNo appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →JAMES in Connections
2 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.
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· Puzzle #1069
Reveal this appearance's category
JAMES appeared in MULTI-TIME NBA MVPS (green group).
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· Puzzle #165
Reveal this appearance's category
JAMES appeared in N.B.A. GREATS (purple group).
How JAMES performs as a guess
Wordle accepts JAMES as a guess, but the solver does not list it as a possible answer.
Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 82.4% of games, misses completely in 17.6%, and leaves about 188 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,120 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.81 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe JAMES 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How JAMES 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Feedback distribution
JAMES can come back 62 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for JAMES; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing JAMES
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to JAMES.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing JAMES:
Research on JAMES
Game-tree analysis and word research for JAMES, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with JAMES, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.79 guesses and ranks #10,404 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 JAMES can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.81; proven optimal play reaches 3.79. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.
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.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- JAMES sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 129 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
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).