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

SENSE

Yes, SENSE was the Wordle answer on February 27, 2024 (Wordle #983).

As an opener, it rules out about 89.0% of possible answers.

Open Solver with SENSE Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /sɛns//sɛnts//sɪns/

Noun

Any of the manners by which living beings perceive the physical world: for humans sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste.

Noun

Perception through the intellect; apprehension; awareness.

“a sense of security”

Verb

To use biological senses: to either see, hear, smell, taste, or feel.

Verb

To instinctively be aware.

“She immediately sensed her disdain.”

Alternative forms: sence

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: February 27, 2024 (#983).

See the full page for that puzzle: February 27, 2024 (#983).

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

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How SENSE performs as a guess

SENSE 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 72.5% of games, misses completely in 27.5%, and leaves about 260 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,534 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.83 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___E S in the 1st position and E in the 5th position S__S_ S in the 1st position and S in the 4th position _E__E E in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe SENSE 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.

4.21 Entropy (bits)
260 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
89.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 33% of evaluated openers
1.74 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SENSE 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.

3.83 Avg guesses
99.83% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#12,534 Rank among openers
Opening with SENSE left 4 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 3.83 average. It ranks #12,534 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
42
3 guesses
685
4 guesses
1,288
5 guesses
304
6 guesses
30
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

3/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ENS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
72%
Green tile
47%
All gray
28%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I N G
S E N S E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SENSE in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

SENSE can come back 71 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

654 answers
223 answers
190 answers
188 answers
157 answers
116 answers
79 answers
64 answers
59 answers
54 answers
54 answers
48 answers
35 answers
34 answers
33 answers
32 answers
26 answers
25 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
16 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
9 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1E1N1S1E1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 6 points

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

Try next

CAROL OATER GRATE TRAIN LAIRY CLARY

Strategy after playing SENSE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SENSE:

28% chance
Suggested:
CAROL
9% chance
Suggested:
OATER
8% chance
Suggested:
GRATE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

27.5% →
CAROL 5.92 bits
9.4% →
OATER 4.85 bits
8.0% →
GRATE 4.52 bits
7.9% →
TRAIN 5.27 bits
6.6% →
LAIRY 4.63 bits
4.9% →
CLARY 5.04 bits
3.3% →
COALY 4.27 bits
2.7% →
ALIEN 4.25 bits
2.5% →
TRASH 4.44 bits
2.3% →
PLATE 4.03 bits

Research on SENSE

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

Optimal play

Opening with SENSE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.83 guesses and ranks #11,873 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 SENSE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.83, at or below the proven-optimal 3.83, 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 SEHNS.

Rhymes with HENCE FENCE DENSE TENSE PENCE

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SENSE is a kind of awareness or meaning.

Synonyms feel SMELL sensation

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SENSE sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 155 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 A2); among the first words English learners study.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 8, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 29 of 100. Raters found it difficult to picture.

In a sentence

That made sense to me.
© tatoeba.org contributor rul (CC BY 2.0 FR)
He is right in a sense.
© 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).