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

MUSIC

Yes, MUSIC was the Wordle answer on September 17, 2023 (Wordle #820).

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈmjuːzɪk//ˈmjʉwzɪk//ˈmju.zɪk/

Noun

A series of sounds organized in time, usually employing some combination of harmony, melody, rhythm, tempo, etc., often to convey a mood.

“I keep listening to this music because it’s a masterpiece.”

Noun

Any interesting or pleasing sounds.

Verb

To seduce or entice with music.

Adjective

Musical.

Alternative forms: musick, musicke, musique, musike

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Etymology

From Middle English musik, musike, borrowed from Anglo-Norman musik, musike, Old French musique, and their source Latin mūsica, from Ancient Greek μουσική (mousikḗ), from Ancient Greek Μοῦσα (Moûsa, “Muse”), an Ancient Greek deity of the arts. By surface analysis, muse + -ic (“pertaining to”). In this sense, displaced native Old English drēam (“music”), whence Modern English dream. Fully displaced Old English sweġl.

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it MYOOZIHK.

Related meanings

Synonyms medicine

In a sentence

The people like the music.
© tatoeba.org contributor frpzzd (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Do you like this music?
© tatoeba.org contributor zumley (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use MUSIC in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 89.4% of possible answers.

Open Solver with MUSIC Open Word Finder

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: September 17, 2023 (#820).

See the full page for that puzzle: September 17, 2023 (#820).

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

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MUSIC in Connections

6 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . Showing the 5 most recent. A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.

How MUSIC performs as a guess

MUSIC is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,384 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 73.9% of games, misses completely in 26.1%, and leaves about 252 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,097 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___C M in the 1st position and C in the 5th position M__I_ M in the 1st position and I in the 4th position _U__C U in the 2nd position and C in the 5th position MU_IC M in the 1st position, U in the 2nd position, I in the 4th position, and C in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe MUSIC 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.

4.30 Entropy (bits)
252 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
89.4% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How MUSIC 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
99.83% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#6,097 Rank among openers
Opening with MUSIC left 4 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.69 average. It ranks #6,097 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
46
3 guesses
888
4 guesses
1,183
5 guesses
216
6 guesses
16

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ISU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
74%
Green tile
20%
All gray
26%

Example solver route

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

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches MUSIC in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

MUSIC can come back 84 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

622 answers
263 answers
248 answers
183 answers
104 answers
78 answers
76 answers
66 answers
62 answers
60 answers
53 answers
50 answers
48 answers
36 answers
34 answers
21 answers
21 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

M3U1S1I1C3
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Try next

ALTER TRINE STARE CRATE TRONE STILE

Strategy after playing MUSIC

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing MUSIC:

26% chance
Suggested:
ALTER
11% chance
Suggested:
TRINE
10% chance
Suggested:
STARE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

26.1% →
ALTER 6.09 bits
11.0% →
TRINE 5.47 bits
10.4% →
STARE 5.68 bits
7.7% →
CRATE 5.67 bits
4.4% →
TRONE 5.30 bits
3.3% →
STILE 4.35 bits
3.2% →
LATER 4.56 bits
2.8% →
RATEL 4.91 bits
2.6% →
ROATE 5.00 bits
2.5% →
SLANT 4.33 bits

Research on MUSIC

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

Optimal play

Opening with MUSIC, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.74 guesses and ranks #7,617 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 #2,738 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
MUSIC sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 331 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: 71 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sound (4.8 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); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).