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

PUTTS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 83.5% of possible answers.

Open Solver with PUTTS Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /pʌts/

Noun

plural of putt

Verb

third-person singular simple present indicative of putt

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 PUTTS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts PUTTS 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 62.8% of games, misses completely in 37.2%, and leaves about 391 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,814 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.76 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 _U__S U in the 2nd position and S in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe PUTTS 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.

3.87 Entropy (bits)
391 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
83.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 17% of evaluated openers
2.07 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How PUTTS 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.

3.76 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#9,814 Rank among openers
Opening with PUTTS left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.76 average. It ranks #9,814 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
39
3 guesses
822
4 guesses
1,186
5 guesses
282
6 guesses
24
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:
STU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
63%
Green tile
23%
All gray
37%

Feedback distribution

PUTTS can come back 73 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

884 answers
233 answers
181 answers
107 answers
99 answers
96 answers
75 answers
68 answers
64 answers
59 answers
53 answers
46 answers
44 answers
26 answers
22 answers
20 answers
20 answers
16 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers
8 answers
8 answers
7 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

P3U1T1T1S1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Try next

RAILE TIARE ARISE DRONE MARLE RAINE

Strategy after playing PUTTS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing PUTTS:

37% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
10% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
8% chance
Suggested:
TIARE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

37.2% →
RAILE 6.18 bits
9.8% →
RAILE 5.49 bits
7.6% →
TIARE 5.51 bits
4.5% →
ARISE 4.88 bits
4.2% →
DRONE 5.17 bits
4.0% →
MARLE 4.37 bits
3.2% →
RAINE 5.13 bits
2.9% →
RAILE 5.29 bits
2.7% →
RAILE 4.60 bits
2.5% →
CANER 4.77 bits

Research on PUTTS

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

Optimal play

Opening with PUTTS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.80 guesses and ranks #10,904 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 PUTTS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.76, at or below the proven-optimal 3.80, 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 PUHTS.

Rhymes with WHATS BUTTS SHUTS SLUTS MUTTS

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, PUTTS is a kind of swing or hit.

Synonyms putting

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
PUTTS 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 sight (3.0 of 5).

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).