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

PAPER

Yes, PAPER was the Wordle answer on July 24, 2021 (Wordle #35).

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

Open Solver with PAPER Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈpeɪ̯.pə//ˈpeɪ̯.pəɹ/[ˈpʰeɪ̯.pɚ]

Noun

A sheet material typically used for writing on or printing on (or as a non-waterproof container), usually made by draining cellulose fibres from a suspension in water.

“Draw on the paper! Not on the walls!”

Noun

Ellipsis of newspaper; anything used as such (such as a newsletter or listing magazine).

“Read all about it in this morning's paper!”

Adjective

Made of paper.

Adjective

Insubstantial (from the weakness of common paper).

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: July 24, 2021 (#35).

See the full page for that puzzle: July 24, 2021 (#35).

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

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How verification and withdrawal work

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How PAPER performs as a guess

PAPER 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 82.5% of games, misses completely in 17.5%, and leaves about 167 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,223 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.77 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.

P___R P in the 1st position and R in the 5th position P__E_ P in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _A__R A in the 2nd position and R in the 5th position PA_ER P in the 1st position, A in the 2nd position, E in the 4th position, and R in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe PAPER 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.

4.61 Entropy (bits)
167 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
92.9% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 59% of evaluated openers
1.34 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How PAPER 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.

3.77 Avg guesses
99.75% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#10,223 Rank among openers
Opening with PAPER left 6 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 3.77 average. It ranks #10,223 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
59
3 guesses
753
4 guesses
1,235
5 guesses
275
6 guesses
25
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:
AER

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
33%
All gray
18%

Example solver route

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

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches PAPER in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

PAPER can come back 86 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

415 answers
257 answers
186 answers
175 answers
137 answers
131 answers
117 answers
105 answers
96 answers
89 answers
67 answers
43 answers
39 answers
34 answers
31 answers
29 answers
25 answers
24 answers
21 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

P3A1P3E1R1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Try next

SOILY TOILE SLANT COURT SLATE SONLY

Strategy after playing PAPER

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing PAPER:

17% chance
Suggested:
SOILY
11% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
8% chance
Suggested:
SLANT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.5% →
SOILY 5.65 bits
10.8% →
TOILE 5.26 bits
7.8% →
SLANT 5.29 bits
7.4% →
COURT 5.07 bits
5.8% →
SLATE 4.97 bits
5.5% →
SONLY 4.54 bits
4.9% →
TOISE 4.57 bits
4.4% →
CRAFT 4.14 bits
4.0% →
SOILY 3.48 bits
3.7% →
OLDEN 4.17 bits

Research on PAPER

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

Optimal play

Opening with PAPER, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses and ranks #8,729 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 PAPER can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.77; proven optimal play reaches 3.76. 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 PAYPUR.

Rhymes with VAPOR TAPER CAPER RAPER

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, PAPER is a kind of stuff or essay.

Synonyms report THEME newspaper composition wallpaper

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
PAPER sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 117 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: 92 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.

In a sentence

What was on the paper?
© tatoeba.org contributor CM (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Do you get the paper?
© 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); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0).