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

LANCE

Yes, LANCE was the Wordle answer on February 26, 2026 (Wordle #1713).

As an opener, it rules out about 96.0% of possible answers.

Open Solver with LANCE Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /lɑːns//læns/

Noun

A weapon of war, consisting of a long shaft or handle and a steel blade or head; a spear carried by horsemen.

Noun

A wooden spear, sometimes hollow, used in jousting or tilting, designed to shatter on impact with the opposing knight’s armour.

Verb

To pierce with a lance, or with any similar weapon.

Verb

To open with a lancet; to prick or cut open with a sharp instrument; to pierce.

“to lance a vein or an abscess”

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: February 26, 2026 (#1713).

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 LANCE performs as a guess

LANCE 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 88.0% of games, misses completely in 12.0%, and leaves about 94 possible answers on average.

In the current bounded six-turn policy, it ranks #21 of 182 evaluated openers; exact misses rank first, then average guesses among wins.

In the previous complete v5 benchmark, it ranks #103 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.56 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.

L___E L in the 1st position and E in the 5th position L__C_ L in the 1st position and C in the 4th position _A__E A in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position

Try next

SHORT SETER TORSE TRASH SOULY IRONY
Words starting with L Words ending with E

First-turn measures

5.51 Entropy (bits)
94 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
96.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 99% of evaluated openers
0.44 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opener: v5 benchmark

How LANCE 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.

3.56 Avg guesses
99.9% Win rate
0.70 Volatility
#103 v5 opener rank
In the complete v5 snapshot, LANCE ranks #103 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
93
3 guesses
1,035
4 guesses
1,059
5 guesses
149
6 guesses
15
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:
AELN

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
88%
Green tile
39%
All gray
12%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S M I L Y
H A L V E
L A N C E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches LANCE in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

129 possible patterns. Top outcomes:

283
192
124
119
115
100
81
81
71
65
61
61
48
47
39
39
34
32
32
30
28
27
25
25
24
23
21
20
19
19

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing LANCE:

12% chance
Suggested:
SHORT
8% chance
Suggested:
SETER
5% chance
Suggested:
TORSE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.0% →
SHORT 5.99 bits
8.1% →
SETER 5.31 bits
5.3% →
TORSE 4.71 bits
5.0% →
TRASH 5.17 bits
4.9% →
SOULY 4.76 bits
4.2% →
IRONY 4.79 bits
3.4% →
TARDY 4.22 bits
3.4% →
ALTAR 4.45 bits
3.0% →
BETEL 4.29 bits
2.8% →
SIREN 4.42 bits

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

L1A1N1C3E1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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