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

MATTE

Yes, MATTE was the Wordle answer on August 16, 2025 (Wordle #1519).

As an opener, it rules out about 92.9% of possible answers.

Open Solver with MATTE Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /mæt/

Noun

A decorative border around a picture used to inset and center the contents of a frame.

“The image is a perfect square of 8 cm (with white matte border the total dimensions are 14 cm tall by 11 cm wide).”

Noun

A background, often painted or created with computers

“Matte painting is a tool that filmmakers can use to create a scene that is impossible to achieve with conventional cinematographic means.”

Adjective

Dull; not reflective of light.

“Flat or matte paint allows a deep color expression on the walls while also hiding flaws that may be inherent on the painted surface.”

Verb

To produce a dull, lustreless surface on (metal).

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: August 16, 2025 (#1519).

See the full page for that puzzle: August 16, 2025 (#1519).

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

Wordle Observatory · optional

Played this Wordle?

Add your result to the public totals · about 20 seconds

Add your result and a quick difficulty rating to help explain how this puzzle played.

See the public data

The Observatory retains the selected puzzle, result, rating, optional Hard Mode answer and a random one-puzzle receipt. It stores no answer word, grid, guesses, account, email, IP-derived ID or reusable player identifier.

How verification and withdrawal work

The answer word and timezone are used transiently to verify this page, then discarded. The receipt prevents duplicate submissions and lets this browser withdraw later; anyone with that token can withdraw, so keep browser-data exports private. Read the full privacy details.

How MATTE performs as a guess

MATTE 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 82.6% of games, misses completely in 17.4%, and leaves about 169 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,206 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.74 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___E M in the 1st position and E in the 5th position M__T_ M in the 1st position and T in the 4th position _A__E A in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe MATTE 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.

4.69 Entropy (bits)
169 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
92.9% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 65% of evaluated openers
1.25 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How MATTE 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.

3.74 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#9,206 Rank among openers
Opening with MATTE left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.73 means those games clustered within about 0.73 of a guess of the 3.74 average. It ranks #9,206 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
61
3 guesses
795
4 guesses
1,199
5 guesses
276
6 guesses
21
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

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AET

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
83%
Green tile
38%
All gray
17%

Example solver route

R O A T E
B U T C H
L A T T E
M A T T E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches MATTE in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

MATTE can come back 97 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

414 answers
278 answers
213 answers
190 answers
132 answers
111 answers
83 answers
82 answers
80 answers
72 answers
55 answers
40 answers
39 answers
36 answers
35 answers
32 answers
29 answers
26 answers
26 answers
25 answers
22 answers
20 answers
17 answers
17 answers
14 answers
14 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

M3A1T1T1E1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Try next

SOILY SLIER SNARL SENOR SNORT SONLY

Strategy after playing MATTE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing MATTE:

17% chance
Suggested:
SOILY
12% chance
Suggested:
SLIER
9% chance
Suggested:
SNARL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.4% →
SOILY 5.69 bits
11.7% →
SLIER 5.06 bits
9.0% →
SNARL 5.12 bits
8.0% →
SENOR 4.57 bits
5.6% →
SNORT 5.27 bits
4.7% →
SONLY 4.55 bits
3.5% →
SLART 3.96 bits
3.5% →
SLEER 4.84 bits
3.4% →
RENAL 4.74 bits
3.0% →
SLART 4.71 bits

Research on MATTE

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

Optimal play

Opening with MATTE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.74 guesses and ranks #7,738 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 MATTE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.74, at or below the proven-optimal 3.74, 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 MAT.

Rhymes with PRATT PLATT SPLAT BLATT BEGAT

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, MATTE is a kind of mixture or property.

Synonyms felt flat matt mat dull

Opposites bright

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
MATTE sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 3 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.0 of 5).

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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).