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

SCENT

Yes, SCENT was the Wordle answer on June 20, 2024 (Wordle #1097).

As an opener, it rules out about 94.6% of possible answers.

Open Solver with SCENT Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /sɛnt/

Noun

A distinctive smell.

“the scent of flowers / of a skunk”

Noun

A smell left by an animal that may be used for tracing.

“The dogs picked up / caught the scent but then quickly lost it.”

Verb

To detect the scent of; to discern by the sense of smell.

“The hounds scented the fox in the woods.”

Verb

To inhale in order to detect the scent of (something).

Alternative forms: sent

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: June 20, 2024 (#1097).

See the full page for that puzzle: June 20, 2024 (#1097).

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

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How SCENT performs as a guess

SCENT 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 86.3% of games, misses completely in 13.7%, and leaves about 129 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,098 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.60 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___T S in the 1st position and T in the 5th position S__N_ S in the 1st position and N in the 4th position _C__T C in the 2nd position and T in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe SCENT 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.

5.15 Entropy (bits)
129 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
94.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 90% of evaluated openers
0.80 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SCENT 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.

3.60 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#1,098 Rank among openers
Opening with SCENT 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 3.60 average. It ranks #1,098 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
66
3 guesses
1,001
4 guesses
1,109
5 guesses
154
6 guesses
22
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
1 vowels
Common:
ENST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
86%
Green tile
34%
All gray
14%

Example solver route

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

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SCENT in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

SCENT can come back 108 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

325 answers
325 answers
123 answers
102 answers
100 answers
98 answers
87 answers
81 answers
70 answers
68 answers
63 answers
58 answers
52 answers
47 answers
39 answers
35 answers
35 answers
30 answers
25 answers
24 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
20 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1C3E1N1T1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Try next

MOLAR RAILE CORAL TOTAL TARTE ARIEL

Strategy after playing SCENT

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SCENT:

14% chance
Suggested:
MOLAR
14% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
5% chance
Suggested:
CORAL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

13.7% →
MOLAR 5.76 bits
13.7% →
RAILE 5.41 bits
5.2% →
CORAL 5.33 bits
4.3% →
TOTAL 4.97 bits
4.2% →
TARTE 4.85 bits
4.1% →
ARIEL 4.53 bits
3.7% →
LOGIN 4.85 bits
3.4% →
LAIRY 4.75 bits
2.9% →
CARLE 4.87 bits
2.9% →
BRASS 4.73 bits

Research on SCENT

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

Optimal play

Opening with SCENT, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.64 guesses and ranks #1,224 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 SCENT can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.60, at or below the proven-optimal 3.64, 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 SEHNT.

Rhymes with EVENT SPENT MEANT BRENT STENT

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SCENT is a kind of smell or odor.

Synonyms wind nose SMELL perfume fragrance odor

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SCENT sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 7 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 8, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 46 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with smell (4.6 of 5).

In a sentence

There's a scent of danger.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
The dog picked up the scent.
© tatoeba.org contributor karloelkebekio (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).