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

MATEY

Yes, MATEY was the Wordle answer on January 22, 2023 (Wordle #582).

As an opener, it rules out about 94.7% of possible answers.

Open Solver with MATEY Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Adjective

Sociable or friendly.

“You've been very matey with that new bird.”

Noun

Diminutive of mate, friend.

“Hello, matey, just back from the pub?”

Noun

A fellow sailor; often used affectedly, especially when portraying a pirate.

“Ahoy mateys, scrub the deck!”

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 22, 2023 (#582).

See the full page for that puzzle: January 22, 2023 (#582).

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

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How MATEY performs as a guess

MATEY 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 88.6% of games, misses completely in 11.4%, and leaves about 125 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,240 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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___Y M in the 1st position and Y in the 5th position M__E_ M in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _A__Y A in the 2nd position and Y in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe MATEY 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.

5.03 Entropy (bits)
125 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
94.7% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 85% of evaluated openers
0.92 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How MATEY 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.

3.69 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#6,240 Rank among openers
Opening with MATEY left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.69 average. It ranks #6,240 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
73
3 guesses
853
4 guesses
1,168
5 guesses
240
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
2 vowels
Common:
AET

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
89%
Green tile
40%
All gray
11%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S P L A T
E A T E N
M A T E Y

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches MATEY in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

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

270 answers
257 answers
186 answers
161 answers
158 answers
137 answers
129 answers
88 answers
80 answers
60 answers
59 answers
48 answers
41 answers
38 answers
37 answers
33 answers
31 answers
31 answers
27 answers
26 answers
22 answers
22 answers
20 answers
19 answers
17 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

M3A1T1E1Y4
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Try next

SCION NOISE SNARL SLIER SNORT PEARL

Strategy after playing MATEY

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing MATEY:

11% chance
Suggested:
SCION
11% chance
Suggested:
NOISE
8% chance
Suggested:
SNARL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

11.4% →
SCION 5.64 bits
10.8% →
NOISE 5.07 bits
7.8% →
SNARL 5.08 bits
6.8% →
SLIER 4.27 bits
6.7% →
SNORT 5.32 bits
5.8% →
PEARL 4.65 bits
5.4% →
SOILY 4.08 bits
3.7% →
CRISE 4.78 bits
3.4% →
SLART 4.78 bits
2.5% →
SONAR 4.60 bits

Research on MATEY

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

Optimal play

Opening with MATEY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.67 guesses and ranks #2,899 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 MATEY can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.69; proven optimal play reaches 3.67. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.

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 MAYTEE.

Rhymes with PLATY

Related meanings

Synonyms friendly

Opposites unfriendly

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
MATEY 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.

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).