5 FiveLetterWords
Accepted guess Not a possible answer B tier for first-turn info

NODES

NODES is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.

As an opener, it rules out about 94.5% of possible answers.

Open Solver with NODES Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of node

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

No

The solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.

Past Wordle answer

Not used yet

No past answer date found.

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

How NODES performs as a guess

Wordle accepts NODES as a guess, but the solver does not list it as a possible answer.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 87.1% of games, misses completely in 12.9%, and leaves about 131 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,614 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.65 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.

N___S N in the 1st position and S in the 5th position N__E_ N in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _O__S O in the 2nd position and S in the 5th position NO_ES N in the 1st position, O in the 2nd position, E in the 4th position, and S in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe NODES 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.

4.96 Entropy (bits)
131 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
94.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 82% of evaluated openers
0.98 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How NODES 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.

3.65 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#3,614 Rank among openers
Opening with NODES solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.65 average. It ranks #3,614 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
66
3 guesses
898
4 guesses
1,206
5 guesses
169
6 guesses
15
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:
ENOS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
87%
Green tile
28%
All gray
13%

Feedback distribution

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

307 answers
279 answers
186 answers
133 answers
123 answers
122 answers
120 answers
94 answers
69 answers
65 answers
59 answers
54 answers
45 answers
43 answers
41 answers
40 answers
36 answers
33 answers
26 answers
25 answers
23 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

N1O1D2E1S1
Total: 6 points

Words With Friends

Total: 7 points

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

Try next

TRAIL REATE SLART GIANT LATER ACTOR

Strategy after playing NODES

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing NODES:

13% chance
Suggested:
TRAIL
12% chance
Suggested:
REATE
8% chance
Suggested:
SLART

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.9% →
TRAIL 5.82 bits
11.8% →
REATE 5.57 bits
7.8% →
SLART 5.30 bits
5.6% →
GIANT 5.12 bits
5.2% →
LATER 4.41 bits
5.1% →
ACTOR 5.07 bits
5.1% →
SLART 5.09 bits
4.0% →
CLARY 4.57 bits
2.9% →
GEARE 4.61 bits
2.7% →
TIARE 4.65 bits

Research on NODES

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

Optimal play

Opening with NODES, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.64 guesses and ranks #1,457 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 NODES can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, at or below the proven-optimal 3.64, 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 NOHDZ.

Rhymes with ROADS LOADS CODES MODES TOADS

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, NODES is a kind of motion or inclination.

Synonyms GUEST client knob

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
NODES sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 6 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 (2.7 of 5).

In a sentence

You have a cold and your lymph nodes are swollen.
© tatoeba.org contributor Eccles17 (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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).