Possible answer Not used yet B tier for first-turn info

LUMEN

LUMEN is on the solver's possible-answer list but has not appeared as a Wordle answer yet.

As an opener, it rules out about 93.4% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈluːmən//ˈlumən/

Noun

In the International System of Units, the derived unit of luminous flux; the light that is emitted in a solid angle of one steradian from a source of one candela. Symbol: lm.

Noun

The cavity or channel within a tube or tubular organ.

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

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 LUMEN performs as a guess

LUMEN 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 83.5% of games, misses completely in 16.5%, and leaves about 158 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,159 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.

First-turn measures

All four describe LUMEN 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.

4.82 Entropy (bits)
158 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
93.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 72% of evaluated openers
1.13 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How LUMEN 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
99.87% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#3,159 Rank among openers
Opening with LUMEN left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.64 average. It ranks #3,159 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
65
3 guesses
927
4 guesses
1,162
5 guesses
179
6 guesses
17
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:
ELNU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
84%
Green tile
29%
All gray
16%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S I L E N
L U M E N

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches LUMEN in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

LUMEN can come back 96 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

392 answers
306 answers
190 answers
139 answers
131 answers
119 answers
86 answers
74 answers
67 answers
57 answers
51 answers
45 answers
45 answers
45 answers
42 answers
36 answers
32 answers
26 answers
25 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

L1U1M3E1N1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing LUMEN

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing LUMEN:

17% chance
Suggested:
ROAST
13% chance
Suggested:
CRATE
8% chance
Suggested:
STALL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

16.5%
ROAST 6.18 bits
12.9%
CRATE 5.71 bits
8.0%
STALL 5.17 bits
5.9%
STAIR 4.45 bits
5.5%
GIANT 5.11 bits
5.0%
CEASE 4.61 bits
3.6%
SEINE 4.71 bits
3.1%
COAST 5.08 bits
2.8%
CRUST 5.15 bits
2.4%
SHART 4.22 bits

Research on LUMEN

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

Optimal play

Opening with LUMEN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.67 guesses and ranks #3,104 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 LUMEN can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, at or below the proven-optimal 3.67, 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 LOOMUHN.

Rhymes with HUMAN CUMIN RUMEN

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, LUMEN is a kind of emu or cavity.

Synonyms lm

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
LUMEN sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about once per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.

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).