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

MATCH

Yes, MATCH was the Wordle answer on February 20, 2024 (Wordle #976).

As an opener, it rules out about 90.4% of possible answers.

Open Solver with MATCH Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /mæt͡ʃ/

Noun

A competitive sporting event such as a boxing meet (commonly called a "bout"), a baseball game, or a cricket match.

“My local team are playing in a match against their arch-rivals today.”

Noun

Any contest or trial of strength or skill, or to determine superiority.

Verb

To agree; to be equal; to correspond.

“Their interests didn't match, so it took a long time to agree what to do together.”

Verb

To agree with; to be equal to; to correspond to.

“His interests didn't match her interests.”

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: February 20, 2024 (#976).

See the full page for that puzzle: February 20, 2024 (#976).

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 MATCH performs as a guess

MATCH 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 74.6% of games, misses completely in 25.4%, and leaves about 228 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,023 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.

M___H M in the 1st position and H in the 5th position M__C_ M in the 1st position and C in the 4th position _A__H A in the 2nd position and H in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe MATCH 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.

4.57 Entropy (bits)
228 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
90.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 57% of evaluated openers
1.37 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How MATCH 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
100% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#3,023 Rank among openers
Opening with MATCH solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.64 average. It ranks #3,023 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
58
3 guesses
941
4 guesses
1,160
5 guesses
181
6 guesses
13
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:
AT

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
75%
Green tile
28%
All gray
25%

Example solver route

R O A T E
C L I N T
H U M P H
M A T C H

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches MATCH in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

MATCH can come back 101 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

602 answers
250 answers
215 answers
130 answers
114 answers
101 answers
71 answers
69 answers
46 answers
46 answers
42 answers
40 answers
37 answers
37 answers
35 answers
33 answers
27 answers
27 answers
26 answers
26 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

M3A1T1C3H4
Total: 12 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Try next

RIONE LEARN SIREN SLYER SLART CRONE

Strategy after playing MATCH

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing MATCH:

25% chance
Suggested:
RIONE
11% chance
Suggested:
LEARN
9% chance
Suggested:
SIREN

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

25.4% →
RIONE 6.06 bits
10.5% →
LEARN 5.40 bits
9.1% →
SIREN 5.66 bits
5.5% →
SLYER 5.01 bits
4.8% →
SLART 4.93 bits
4.3% →
CRONE 5.32 bits
3.0% →
SIREN 5.30 bits
2.9% →
ROULE 4.91 bits
1.9% →
SERAL 4.57 bits
1.9% →
ALOSE 4.49 bits

Research on MATCH

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

Optimal play

Opening with MATCH, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #3,983 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 MATCH can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, at or below the proven-optimal 3.69, 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 MACH.

Rhymes with CATCH PATCH BATCH HATCH LATCH

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, MATCH is a kind of light or competition.

Synonyms CHECK couple AGREE fit TOUCH CATCH

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
MATCH sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 135 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 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 70 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.9 of 5).

In a sentence

Do you have a match?
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
It was a good match.
© tatoeba.org contributor CM (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).