Accepted guess Not a possible answer C tier for first-turn info

LATEX

LATEX is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.

As an opener, it rules out about 94.3% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈleɪtɛks//ˈleɪˌtɛks/

Noun

The milky sap of several trees that coagulates on exposure to air; used to make rubber.

Noun

An emulsion of rubber in water, used in adhesives and the like.

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

No

The solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.

Past Wordle answer

Not used yet

No past answer date found.

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

How LATEX performs as a guess

Wordle accepts LATEX 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 86.2% of games, misses completely in 13.8%, and leaves about 136 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,848 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.78 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.

First-turn measures

All four describe LATEX 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.

4.80 Entropy (bits)
136 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
94.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 71% of evaluated openers
1.15 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How LATEX 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.

3.78 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#10,848 Rank among openers
Opening with LATEX left 2 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 3.78 average. It ranks #10,848 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
56
3 guesses
733
4 guesses
1,259
5 guesses
280
6 guesses
24
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:
AELT

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
86%
Green tile
30%
All gray
14%

Feedback distribution

LATEX can come back 90 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

327 answers
244 answers
171 answers
152 answers
144 answers
136 answers
116 answers
103 answers
95 answers
87 answers
71 answers
66 answers
50 answers
47 answers
37 answers
37 answers
36 answers
31 answers
27 answers
26 answers
26 answers
24 answers
24 answers
22 answers
19 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

L1A1T1E1X8
Total: 12 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Strategy after playing LATEX

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing LATEX:

14% chance
Suggested:
IRONY
10% chance
Suggested:
NOIRE
7% chance
Suggested:
SHOUT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

13.8%
IRONY 5.50 bits
10.3%
NOIRE 5.25 bits
7.2%
SHOUT 5.38 bits
6.4%
CRANK 4.82 bits
6.1%
SOULY 4.66 bits
5.7%
SENOR 4.28 bits
4.9%
SCARE 4.53 bits
4.3%
RAYON 4.15 bits
4.0%
CLAIM 4.00 bits
3.7%
PRISE 4.73 bits

Research on LATEX

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

Optimal play

Opening with LATEX, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.74 guesses and ranks #7,323 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 LATEX can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.78; proven optimal play reaches 3.74. 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.

How it sounds

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, LATEX is a kind of discharge or paint.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
LATEX sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 3 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with touch (4.1 of 5).

In a sentence

Some people are allergic to latex.
© tatoeba.org contributor Hybrid (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Tom is allergic to latex.
© tatoeba.org contributor Hybrid (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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).