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

LEMON

Yes, LEMON was the Wordle answer on January 7, 2023 (Wordle #567).

As an opener, it rules out about 94.1% of possible answers.

Open Solver with LEMON Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈlɛmən//ˈlɛmɪn//ˈlɪmɪn/

Noun

A yellowish citrus fruit.

Noun

A semitropical evergreen tree, Citrus limon, that bears such fruits.

Adjective

Containing or having the flavour/flavor and/or scent of lemons.

Adjective

Of the pale yellow colour/color of lemons.

Alternative forms: limon

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: January 7, 2023 (#567).

See the full page for that puzzle: January 7, 2023 (#567).

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

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How LEMON performs as a guess

LEMON 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 86.9% of games, misses completely in 13.1%, and leaves about 140 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,558 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.63 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.

L___N L in the 1st position and N in the 5th position L__O_ L in the 1st position and O in the 4th position _E__N E in the 2nd position and N in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe LEMON 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.

4.91 Entropy (bits)
140 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
94.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 79% of evaluated openers
1.03 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How LEMON 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.

3.63 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#2,558 Rank among openers
Opening with LEMON left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.63 average. It ranks #2,558 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
74
3 guesses
923
4 guesses
1,164
5 guesses
180
6 guesses
11
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:
ELNO

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
87%
Green tile
24%
All gray
13%

Example solver route

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

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches LEMON in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

LEMON can come back 107 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

315 answers
312 answers
165 answers
153 answers
132 answers
126 answers
109 answers
99 answers
75 answers
64 answers
64 answers
56 answers
51 answers
41 answers
35 answers
34 answers
24 answers
24 answers
24 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

L1E1M3O1N1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Try next

STAIR SHART STALL GIANT SLATE TORSE

Strategy after playing LEMON

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing LEMON:

13% chance
Suggested:
STAIR
13% chance
Suggested:
SHART
7% chance
Suggested:
STALL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

13.3% →
STAIR 5.58 bits
13.1% →
SHART 6.06 bits
7.0% →
STALL 5.15 bits
6.4% →
SHART 5.24 bits
5.6% →
GIANT 5.18 bits
5.3% →
SLATE 4.61 bits
4.6% →
SHART 4.96 bits
4.2% →
TORSE 4.52 bits
3.2% →
ANISE 4.71 bits
2.7% →
SCARY 4.89 bits

Research on LEMON

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

Optimal play

Opening with LEMON, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.68 guesses and ranks #3,194 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.78 guesses at best and is rank #864 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.63, at or below the proven-optimal 3.68, 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 LEHMUHN.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, LEMON is a kind of citrus or yellow.

Synonyms MAIZE

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
LEMON sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 13 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A2); among the first words English learners study.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 5, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 94 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with taste (4.5 of 5).

In a sentence

This is a lemon tree.
© tatoeba.org contributor Chrikaru (CC BY 2.0 FR)
I think this lemon is done for.
© tatoeba.org contributor frpzzd (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).