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

SALAD

Yes, SALAD was the Wordle answer on September 28, 2021 (Wordle #101).

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈsæl.əd//ˈsæl.ɪd//ˈsaləɖ/

Noun

A food made primarily of one or more raw or cold ingredients, typically vegetables, usually served with a dressing such as vinegar or mayonnaise.

“chicken salad”

Noun

One or more raw vegetables of the kind used in salads.

“sandwiches comprising a meat, a cheese, a salad, and a condiment”

Alternative forms: sallet

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Etymology

From Middle English salade, from Old French salade, borrowed from Northern Italian salada, salata (compare insalata), from Vulgar Latin *salāta, from *salāre, from Latin saliō, from sal (“salt”). Vegetables were seasoned with brine or salty oil-and-vinegar dressings during Roman times.

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it SALUHD.

In a sentence

Would you like a salad?
© tatoeba.org contributor Eccles17 (CC BY 2.0 FR)
You can make the salad.
© tatoeba.org contributor Hybrid (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use SALAD in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 90.9% of possible answers.

Open Solver with SALAD Open Word Finder

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: September 28, 2021 (#101).

See the full page for that puzzle: September 28, 2021 (#101).

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

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SALAD in Connections

4 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.

How SALAD performs as a guess

SALAD is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,384 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 75.5% of games, misses completely in 24.5%, and leaves about 216 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,150 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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.

S___D S in the 1st position and D in the 5th position S__A_ S in the 1st position and A in the 4th position _A__D A in the 2nd position and D in the 5th position SA_AD S in the 1st position, A in the 2nd position, A in the 4th position, and D in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe SALAD 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.

4.49 Entropy (bits)
216 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
90.9% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SALAD 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.

3.69 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#6,150 Rank among openers
Opening with SALAD 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 3.69 average. It ranks #6,150 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
54
3 guesses
856
4 guesses
1,223
5 guesses
205
6 guesses
14

Composition

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ALS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
40%
All gray
24%

Example solver route

R O A T E
N A S A L
S A L A D

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SALAD in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

SALAD can come back 91 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

584 answers
189 answers
170 answers
151 answers
151 answers
135 answers
127 answers
84 answers
56 answers
50 answers
48 answers
45 answers
42 answers
41 answers
36 answers
34 answers
33 answers
27 answers
23 answers
22 answers
20 answers
20 answers
20 answers
18 answers
17 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1A1L1A1D2
Total: 6 points

Words With Friends

Total: 7 points

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

Try next

TRONE NOIRE RONTE TRACE CONTE RUOTE

Strategy after playing SALAD

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SALAD:

24% chance
Suggested:
TRONE
8% chance
Suggested:
NOIRE
7% chance
Suggested:
RONTE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

24.5% →
TRONE 6.18 bits
7.9% →
NOIRE 5.02 bits
7.1% →
RONTE 5.07 bits
6.3% →
TRACE 5.56 bits
6.3% →
CONTE 4.93 bits
5.7% →
RUOTE 5.53 bits
5.3% →
RIONE 5.42 bits
3.5% →
FLANE 4.44 bits
2.3% →
PEART 3.84 bits
2.1% →
TOILE 4.37 bits

Research on SALAD

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

Optimal play

Opening with SALAD, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,774 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 SALAD can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, at or below the proven-optimal 3.71, 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SALAD 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 beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A1); among the first words English learners study.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 91 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); 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).