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

PASTS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 89.1% of possible answers.

Open Solver with PASTS Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /pɑːsts//pæsts/

Noun

plural of past

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 PASTS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts PASTS 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 73.3% of games, misses completely in 26.7%, and leaves about 259 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,211 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.72 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___S P in the 1st position and S in the 5th position P__T_ P in the 1st position and T in the 4th position _A__S A in the 2nd position and S in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe PASTS 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.

4.21 Entropy (bits)
259 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
89.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 33% of evaluated openers
1.74 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How PASTS 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.

3.72 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#8,211 Rank among openers
Opening with PASTS left 1 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 3.72 average. It ranks #8,211 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
46
3 guesses
816
4 guesses
1,246
5 guesses
230
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

4/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
AST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
73%
Green tile
26%
All gray
27%

Feedback distribution

PASTS can come back 80 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

634 answers
291 answers
198 answers
154 answers
154 answers
83 answers
83 answers
75 answers
65 answers
59 answers
53 answers
53 answers
47 answers
45 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
20 answers
20 answers
20 answers
17 answers
16 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers
8 answers
8 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

P3A1S1T1S1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Try next

RIONE LEARN ROUET MORNE ALERT CHARE

Strategy after playing PASTS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing PASTS:

27% chance
Suggested:
RIONE
12% chance
Suggested:
LEARN
8% chance
Suggested:
ROUET

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

26.7% →
RIONE 6.01 bits
12.3% →
LEARN 5.40 bits
8.3% →
ROUET 5.46 bits
6.5% →
RIONE 5.22 bits
6.5% →
MORNE 4.79 bits
3.5% →
ROUET 4.54 bits
3.5% →
ALERT 4.87 bits
3.2% →
CHARE 4.66 bits
2.7% →
RIONE 4.78 bits
2.5% →
RIONE 4.45 bits

Research on PASTS

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

Optimal play

Opening with PASTS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.78 guesses and ranks #9,708 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 PASTS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.72, at or below the proven-optimal 3.78, 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 PASTS.

Rhymes with LASTS CASTS MASTS FASTS

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, PASTS is a kind of time or period.

Synonyms by retiring preceding OTHER then last

Opposites present future incoming

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
PASTS sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with internal bodily sensation (2.9 of 5).

In a sentence

I sometimes envy those with vivid pasts.
© tatoeba.org contributor Nuel (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).