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

MERCY

Yes, MERCY was the Wordle answer on October 18, 2023 (Wordle #851).

As an opener, it rules out about 92.8% of possible answers.

Open Solver with MERCY Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈmɜːsi//ˈmɝsi/

Noun

Relenting; forbearance to cause or allow harm to another.

“She took mercy on him and quit embarrassing him.”

Noun

Forgiveness or compassion, especially toward those less fortunate.

“Have mercy on the poor and assist them if you can.”

Verb

To feel mercy

Verb

To show mercy; to pardon or treat leniently because of mercy

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: October 18, 2023 (#851).

See the full page for that puzzle: October 18, 2023 (#851).

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

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How MERCY performs as a guess

MERCY 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 84.5% of games, misses completely in 15.5%, and leaves about 171 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,348 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___Y M in the 1st position and Y in the 5th position M__C_ M in the 1st position and C in the 4th position _E__Y E in the 2nd position and Y in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe MERCY 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.

4.73 Entropy (bits)
171 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
92.8% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 67% of evaluated openers
1.22 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How MERCY 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
#3,348 Rank among openers
Opening with MERCY 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 #3,348 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
59
3 guesses
944
4 guesses
1,138
5 guesses
193
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
1 vowels
Common:
ER

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
84%
Green tile
36%
All gray
16%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S I L E D
S P E R M
F E M U R
M E R C Y

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches MERCY in 5 guesses. See the trap-family guide for similar endgames.

Feedback distribution

MERCY can come back 102 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

368 answers
338 answers
217 answers
198 answers
176 answers
89 answers
83 answers
64 answers
51 answers
45 answers
40 answers
40 answers
36 answers
34 answers
32 answers
30 answers
30 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
20 answers
17 answers
17 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
14 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

M3E1R1C3Y4
Total: 12 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Try next

SAINT SLANT STAIR TRAIN SAULT SHALT

Strategy after playing MERCY

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing MERCY:

16% chance
Suggested:
SAINT
14% chance
Suggested:
SLANT
9% chance
Suggested:
STAIR

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

15.5% →
SAINT 6.32 bits
14.2% →
SLANT 5.75 bits
9.1% →
STAIR 4.51 bits
8.3% →
TRAIN 5.36 bits
7.4% →
SAULT 4.75 bits
3.7% →
SAINT 5.13 bits
3.5% →
SLANT 4.73 bits
2.7% →
SAULT 4.13 bits
2.1% →
SAULT 4.43 bits
1.9% →
SHALT 4.70 bits

Research on MERCY

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

Optimal play

Opening with MERCY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #4,893 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.85 guesses at best and is rank #2,971 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, at or below the proven-optimal 3.70, 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 MURSEE.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, MERCY is a kind of tolerance or quality.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
MERCY sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 18 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 9, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 37 of 100. Raters found it difficult to picture.

In a sentence

There will be no mercy!
© tatoeba.org contributor PauloSamuel (CC BY 2.0 FR)
I am at your mercy.
© tatoeba.org contributor megamanenm (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).