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

SERVE

Yes, SERVE was the Wordle answer on June 28, 2021 (Wordle #9).

As an opener, it rules out about 91.2% of possible answers.

Open Solver with SERVE Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /sɜːv//sɝv//sɑː(ɹ)v/

Noun

An act of putting the ball or shuttlecock in play in various games.

“Whose serve is it?”

Noun

A portion of food or drink, a serving.

Verb

To provide a service (or, by extension, a product, especially food or drink).

Verb

To be effective.

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 28, 2021 (#9).

See the full page for that puzzle: June 28, 2021 (#9).

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 SERVE performs as a guess

SERVE 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 76.3% of games, misses completely in 23.7%, and leaves about 209 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,448 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.77 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__V_ S in the 1st position and V 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 SERVE.

First-turn measures

All four describe SERVE 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.

4.56 Entropy (bits)
209 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
91.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 56% of evaluated openers
1.39 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SERVE 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.

3.77 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.75 Spread of game lengths
#10,448 Rank among openers
Opening with SERVE left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.75 means those games clustered within about 0.75 of a guess of the 3.77 average. It ranks #10,448 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
65
3 guesses
762
4 guesses
1,194
5 guesses
305
6 guesses
26
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
2 vowels
Common:
ERS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
43%
All gray
24%

Example solver route

R O A T E
P R I S M
S C R E E
S E R V E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SERVE in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

SERVE can come back 99 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

562 answers
243 answers
173 answers
135 answers
132 answers
127 answers
103 answers
82 answers
71 answers
64 answers
45 answers
45 answers
37 answers
36 answers
30 answers
30 answers
26 answers
20 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1E1R1V4E1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Try next

TALON TRAIN SLANT ANILE ALIEN OATER

Strategy after playing SERVE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SERVE:

24% chance
Suggested:
TALON
10% chance
Suggested:
TRAIN
7% chance
Suggested:
SLANT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

23.7% →
TALON 5.72 bits
10.2% →
TRAIN 5.26 bits
7.3% →
SLANT 4.57 bits
5.7% →
ANILE 4.66 bits
5.6% →
ALIEN 5.25 bits
5.3% →
OATER 3.87 bits
4.3% →
LASSO 4.69 bits
3.5% →
DEALT 4.54 bits
3.0% →
COALY 4.54 bits
2.7% →
PRATE 3.56 bits

Research on SERVE

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

Optimal play

Opening with SERVE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses and ranks #8,905 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 SERVE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.77; proven optimal play reaches 3.76. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.

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 SURV.

Rhymes with NERVE CURVE VERVE

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SERVE is a kind of shot or do.

Synonyms do help service process answer function

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SERVE sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 71 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: 58 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.9 of 5).

In a sentence

I would like to serve.
© tatoeba.org contributor fishda (CC BY 2.0 FR)
How can I serve you?
© tatoeba.org contributor popball (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).