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

PIANO

Yes, PIANO was the Wordle answer on November 21, 2023 (Wordle #885).

As an opener, it rules out about 94.2% of possible answers.

Open Solver with PIANO Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈpjænəʊ//piˈænəʊ//piˈænoʊ/

Noun

A percussive keyboard musical instrument, usually ranging over seven octaves, with white and black colored keys, played by pressing these keys, causing hammers to strike strings.

“The piano in his house takes up a lot of space.”

Verb

To play the piano.

Verb

To move (the fingers) up and down on, similar to the motions of a pianist playing the piano.

Adverb

Softly, as a dynamic in a piece of music.

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: November 21, 2023 (#885).

See the full page for that puzzle: November 21, 2023 (#885).

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 PIANO performs as a guess

PIANO 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 87.8% of games, misses completely in 12.2%, and leaves about 137 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,570 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.

P___O P in the 1st position and O in the 5th position P__N_ P in the 1st position and N in the 4th position _I__O I in the 2nd position and O in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe PIANO 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.

4.95 Entropy (bits)
137 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
94.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 81% of evaluated openers
1.00 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How PIANO 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
99.92% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#3,570 Rank among openers
Opening with PIANO left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.65 average. It ranks #3,570 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
64
3 guesses
941
4 guesses
1,127
5 guesses
198
6 guesses
21
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
3 vowels
Common:
AINO

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
88%
Green tile
34%
All gray
12%

Example solver route

R O A T E
G U A N O
P I A N O

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches PIANO in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

PIANO can come back 104 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

290 answers
272 answers
252 answers
178 answers
157 answers
99 answers
75 answers
65 answers
63 answers
56 answers
52 answers
49 answers
39 answers
37 answers
35 answers
32 answers
29 answers
29 answers
29 answers
27 answers
26 answers
25 answers
25 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
20 answers
18 answers
18 answers
16 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

P3I1A1N1O1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Try next

SLEER TORSE TALER STURE TRUCE SATED

Strategy after playing PIANO

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing PIANO:

12% chance
Suggested:
SLEER
11% chance
Suggested:
TORSE
11% chance
Suggested:
TALER

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.2% →
SLEER 5.81 bits
11.5% →
TORSE 5.35 bits
10.6% →
TALER 5.59 bits
7.5% →
STURE 5.00 bits
6.6% →
TRUCE 5.35 bits
4.2% →
SATED 4.20 bits
3.2% →
ACTOR 4.23 bits
2.7% →
SOLER 4.33 bits
2.7% →
SETER 4.69 bits
2.4% →
SAMEL 4.52 bits

Research on PIANO

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

Optimal play

Opening with PIANO, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.68 guesses and ranks #3,500 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.81 guesses at best and is rank #1,697 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, at or below the proven-optimal 3.68, 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

Three syllables, stress on the second syllable Say it PEEANOH.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, PIANO is a kind of instrument or property.

Synonyms soft softly

Opposites FORTE

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
PIANO sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 20 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 5, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 98 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sound (4.6 of 5).

In a sentence

Do you like the piano?
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Do you have a piano?
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).