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

LOUSE

Yes, LOUSE was the Wordle answer on April 11, 2024 (Wordle #1027).

As an opener, it rules out about 95.7% of possible answers.

Open Solver with LOUSE Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /laʊs/

Noun

A small parasitic wingless insect of the order Psocodea.

Noun

The currency sign ¤.

Verb

To remove lice from; to delouse.

Verb

Obsolete form of loose.

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: April 11, 2024 (#1027).

See the full page for that puzzle: April 11, 2024 (#1027).

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

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How verification and withdrawal work

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How LOUSE performs as a guess

LOUSE 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 89.0% of games, misses completely in 11.0%, and leaves about 102 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,440 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.64 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___E L in the 1st position and E in the 5th position L__S_ L in the 1st position and S in the 4th position _O__E O in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe LOUSE 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.

5.36 Entropy (bits)
102 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
95.7% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 96% of evaluated openers
0.59 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How LOUSE 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.

3.64 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#3,440 Rank among openers
Opening with LOUSE left 2 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 3.64 average. It ranks #3,440 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
78
3 guesses
906
4 guesses
1,155
5 guesses
196
6 guesses
16
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
3 vowels
Common:
ELOSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
89%
Green tile
39%
All gray
11%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L U M P
L O U S E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches LOUSE in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

LOUSE can come back 112 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

262 answers
260 answers
126 answers
117 answers
113 answers
100 answers
89 answers
88 answers
76 answers
64 answers
46 answers
46 answers
45 answers
44 answers
43 answers
42 answers
37 answers
36 answers
36 answers
31 answers
30 answers
29 answers
29 answers
27 answers
27 answers
27 answers
26 answers
26 answers
24 answers
22 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

L1O1U1S1E1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 7 points

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

Try next

DETER TRAIN ACORN REACT RAINY PETAL

Strategy after playing LOUSE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing LOUSE:

11% chance
Suggested:
DETER
11% chance
Suggested:
TRAIN
5% chance
Suggested:
ACORN

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

11.0% →
DETER 5.40 bits
11.0% →
TRAIN 5.70 bits
5.3% →
ACORN 5.13 bits
4.9% →
REACT 4.61 bits
4.8% →
RAINY 4.57 bits
4.2% →
PETAL 4.55 bits
3.7% →
STRIP 4.93 bits
3.7% →
RAINY 3.93 bits
3.2% →
RAINY 4.06 bits
2.7% →
STEER 4.69 bits

Research on LOUSE

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

Optimal play

Opening with LOUSE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.65 guesses and ranks #1,925 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 LOUSE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, at or below the proven-optimal 3.65, 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

One syllable Say it LOWS.

Rhymes with HOUSE MOUSE ROUSE GAUSS DOUSE

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, LOUSE is a kind of insect or actor.

Synonyms worm insect

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
LOUSE sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 8, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 71 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.

In a sentence

I'm fascinated by the evolutionary history of the louse.
© tatoeba.org contributor shekitten (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); Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0).