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

PLUME

Yes, PLUME was the Wordle answer on May 1, 2026 (Wordle #1777).

As an opener, it rules out about 92.2% of possible answers.

Open Solver with PLUME Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈpluːm//ˈpljuːm//ˈplum/

Noun

A token of honour or prowess; that on which one prides oneself; a prize or reward.

Noun

The vane (“flattened, web-like part”) of a feather, especially when on a quill pen or the fletching of an arrow.

Verb

To adorn, cover, or furnish with feathers or plumes, or as if with feathers or plumes.

Verb

Chiefly of a bird: to arrange and preen the feathers of, specifically in preparation for flight; hence (figurative), to prepare for (something).

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: May 1, 2026 (#1777).

See the full page for that puzzle: May 1, 2026 (#1777).

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

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How PLUME performs as a guess

PLUME 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 79.9% of games, misses completely in 20.1%, and leaves about 186 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,332 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.64 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___E P in the 1st position and E in the 5th position P__M_ P in the 1st position and M in the 4th position _L__E L in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe PLUME 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.

4.72 Entropy (bits)
186 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
92.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 66% of evaluated openers
1.23 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How PLUME 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.

3.64 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#3,332 Rank among openers
Opening with PLUME left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.64 average. It ranks #3,332 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
71
3 guesses
906
4 guesses
1,181
5 guesses
176
6 guesses
17
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:
ELU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
80%
Green tile
35%
All gray
20%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I N G
F L U M E
P L U M E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches PLUME in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

PLUME can come back 102 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

478 answers
314 answers
182 answers
158 answers
102 answers
99 answers
73 answers
72 answers
68 answers
55 answers
47 answers
44 answers
41 answers
37 answers
34 answers
34 answers
32 answers
29 answers
29 answers
27 answers
26 answers
21 answers
21 answers
19 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

P3L1U1M3E1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Try next

TRAIN DETER ROAST LOCAL LEGAL SNARY

Strategy after playing PLUME

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing PLUME:

20% chance
Suggested:
TRAIN
13% chance
Suggested:
DETER
8% chance
Suggested:
ROAST

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

20.1% →
TRAIN 6.15 bits
13.2% →
DETER 5.39 bits
7.7% →
ROAST 5.16 bits
6.7% →
LOCAL 5.07 bits
4.3% →
LEGAL 4.28 bits
4.2% →
SNARY 4.74 bits
3.1% →
COAST 4.53 bits
3.0% →
MICRO 4.89 bits
2.9% →
SHART 4.48 bits
2.3% →
SAINT 4.94 bits

Research on PLUME

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

Optimal play

Opening with PLUME, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.68 guesses and ranks #3,543 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.80 guesses at best and is rank #1,372 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, 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

One syllable Say it PLOOM.

Rhymes with BLOOM GROOM BROOM GLOOM FLUME

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, PLUME is a kind of form or decoration.

Synonyms DRESS PRIDE hook rob soak congratulate

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
PLUME sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 2 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 (4.2 of 5).

In a sentence

There was a plume of smoke coming from the shack.
© tatoeba.org contributor Amastan (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).