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

LUNCH

Yes, LUNCH was the Wordle answer on January 15, 2024 (Wordle #940).

As an opener, it rules out about 89.6% of possible answers.

Open Solver with LUNCH Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /lʌnt͡ʃ//lʌnʃ/[lʌ̃nt͡ʃ]

Noun

A light meal usually eaten around midday, notably when not as main meal of the day.

Noun

A break in play between the first and second sessions.

Verb

To eat lunch.

“I like to lunch in Italian restaurants.”

Verb

To treat to lunch.

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 15, 2024 (#940).

See the full page for that puzzle: January 15, 2024 (#940).

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

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How LUNCH performs as a guess

LUNCH 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 73.7% of games, misses completely in 26.3%, and leaves about 246 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #4,533 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.66 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___H L in the 1st position and H in the 5th position L__C_ L in the 1st position and C in the 4th position _U__H U in the 2nd position and H in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe LUNCH 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.

4.42 Entropy (bits)
246 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
89.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 46% of evaluated openers
1.53 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How LUNCH 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.

3.66 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#4,533 Rank among openers
Opening with LUNCH solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.66 average. It ranks #4,533 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
58
3 guesses
925
4 guesses
1,142
5 guesses
208
6 guesses
20
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
1 vowels
Common:
LNU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
74%
Green tile
24%
All gray
26%

Example solver route

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

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches LUNCH in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

LUNCH can come back 94 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

624 answers
297 answers
208 answers
109 answers
107 answers
85 answers
85 answers
64 answers
55 answers
54 answers
48 answers
42 answers
42 answers
40 answers
39 answers
32 answers
31 answers
29 answers
26 answers
24 answers
23 answers
20 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

L1U1N1C3H4
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Try next

TIARE RAILE ARISE CATER TARSE STORE

Strategy after playing LUNCH

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing LUNCH:

26% chance
Suggested:
TIARE
13% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
9% chance
Suggested:
ARISE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

26.3% →
TIARE 6.25 bits
12.5% →
RAILE 5.43 bits
8.8% →
ARISE 5.54 bits
4.6% →
CATER 5.43 bits
4.5% →
TARSE 5.66 bits
3.6% →
STORE 5.43 bits
3.6% →
GORSE 4.87 bits
2.7% →
MOIRE 4.56 bits
2.3% →
GLEAN 4.36 bits
2.3% →
ROUET 4.20 bits

Research on LUNCH

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

Optimal play

Opening with LUNCH, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,852 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.81 guesses at best and is rank #1,752 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.66, at or below the proven-optimal 3.71, 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 LUHNCH.

Rhymes with BUNCH PUNCH MUNCH HUNCH

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, LUNCH is a kind of meal or eat.

Synonyms luncheon

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
LUNCH sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 46 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 A1); among the first words English learners study.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 4, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 82 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with taste (4.8 of 5).

In a sentence

It was time for lunch.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Have you had your lunch?
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (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).