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

REACT

Yes, REACT was the Wordle answer on July 17, 2021 (Wordle #28).

As an opener, it rules out about 96.5% of possible answers.

Open Solver with REACT Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ɹiːˈækt/

Verb

To act in response.

“How did she react to the news?”

Verb

To return an impulse or impression; to resist the action of another body by an opposite force

“Every body reacts on the body that impels it from its natural state.”

Noun

An emoji used to express a reaction to a post on social media.

“Sad reacts only”

Alternative forms: reäct

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 17, 2021 (#28).

See the full page for that puzzle: July 17, 2021 (#28).

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 REACT performs as a guess

REACT 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 89.3% of games, misses completely in 10.7%, and leaves about 83 possible answers on average.

In the current bounded six-turn policy, it ranks #35 of 182 evaluated openers; exact misses rank first, then average guesses among wins.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #52 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.55 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.

R___T R in the 1st position and T in the 5th position R__C_ R in the 1st position and C in the 4th position _E__T E in the 2nd position and T in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe REACT 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.

5.68 Entropy (bits)
83 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
96.5% Avg ruled out
In the top 1% for first-turn entropy
0.26 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How REACT 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.

3.55 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#52 Rank among openers
Opening with REACT left 1 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 3.55 average. It ranks #52 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
96
3 guesses
1,052
4 guesses
1,041
5 guesses
149
6 guesses
14
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:
AERT

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
89%
Green tile
37%
All gray
11%

Example solver route

R O A T E
R E A C T

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches REACT in 2 guesses.

Feedback distribution

REACT can come back 140 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

255 answers
180 answers
133 answers
130 answers
103 answers
83 answers
75 answers
58 answers
57 answers
54 answers
51 answers
50 answers
48 answers
46 answers
45 answers
42 answers
39 answers
36 answers
35 answers
34 answers
33 answers
32 answers
30 answers
29 answers
29 answers
28 answers
28 answers
25 answers
23 answers
21 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

R1E1A1C3T1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Try next

SOILY SIDLE SONLY POISE GOURD ANGLE

Strategy after playing REACT

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing REACT:

11% chance
Suggested:
SOILY
8% chance
Suggested:
SIDLE
6% chance
Suggested:
SONLY

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

10.7% →
SOILY 5.66 bits
7.6% →
SIDLE 5.40 bits
5.6% →
SONLY 5.23 bits
5.5% →
POISE 4.65 bits
4.3% →
GOURD 4.71 bits
3.5% →
ANGLE 4.59 bits
3.2% →
SOUTH 4.74 bits
2.4% →
NOISE 4.42 bits
2.4% →
MAYOR 4.19 bits
2.3% →
LEDGE 4.23 bits

Research on REACT

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

Optimal play

Opening with REACT, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.59 guesses and ranks #66 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 REACT can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.55, at or below the proven-optimal 3.59, 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

Two syllables, stress on the second syllable Say it REEAKT.

Rhymes with EXACT TRACT ENACT

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, REACT is a kind of move or act.

Synonyms respond oppose

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
REACT sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 14 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B1); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 8, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 44 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.4 of 5).

In a sentence

How will they react to this?
© tatoeba.org contributor megamanenm (CC BY 2.0 FR)
How did you first react?
© tatoeba.org contributor CM (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).