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

SHEEP

Yes, SHEEP was the Wordle answer on March 5, 2026 (Wordle #1720).

As an opener, it rules out about 89.2% of possible answers.

Open Solver with SHEEP Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈʃiːp/[ˈʃɪi̯p]

Noun

A woolly ruminant of the genus Ovis.

Noun

A member of the domestic species Ovis aries, the most well-known species of Ovis.

Alternative forms: shoop, sheepe

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: March 5, 2026 (#1720).

See the full page for that puzzle: March 5, 2026 (#1720).

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

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How SHEEP performs as a guess

SHEEP 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 72.7% of games, misses completely in 27.3%, and leaves about 257 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,899 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.76 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___P S in the 1st position and P in the 5th position S__E_ S in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _H__P H in the 2nd position and P in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe SHEEP 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.

4.41 Entropy (bits)
257 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
89.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 46% of evaluated openers
1.54 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SHEEP 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.

3.76 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#9,899 Rank among openers
Opening with SHEEP solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.73 means those games clustered within about 0.73 of a guess of the 3.76 average. It ranks #9,899 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
51
3 guesses
800
4 guesses
1,186
5 guesses
293
6 guesses
23
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:
ES

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
73%
Green tile
36%
All gray
27%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S I L E N
S H E E P

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SHEEP in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

SHEEP can come back 89 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

647 answers
314 answers
165 answers
139 answers
105 answers
96 answers
83 answers
48 answers
47 answers
44 answers
43 answers
40 answers
38 answers
32 answers
31 answers
30 answers
26 answers
24 answers
22 answers
22 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1H4E1E1P3
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Try next

TALON RAILE RAINY NORTH ROAST PATIO

Strategy after playing SHEEP

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SHEEP:

27% chance
Suggested:
TALON
13% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
7% chance
Suggested:
RAINY

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

27.3% →
TALON 5.85 bits
13.2% →
RAILE 5.27 bits
7.0% →
RAINY 4.29 bits
5.9% →
RAINY 4.77 bits
4.4% →
NORTH 4.84 bits
4.0% →
ROAST 4.92 bits
3.5% →
PATIO 5.06 bits
2.0% →
TREAD 4.45 bits
2.0% →
IRATE 4.32 bits
1.9% →
OLATE 4.14 bits

Research on SHEEP

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

Optimal play

Opening with SHEEP, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.75 guesses and ranks #8,330 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 SHEEP can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.76; proven optimal play reaches 3.75. 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 SHEEP.

Rhymes with SLEEP CHEAP STEEP SWEEP CREEP

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SHEEP is a kind of simple or follower.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SHEEP sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 15 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 3, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 98 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.1 of 5).

In a sentence

We don't have any sheep.
© tatoeba.org contributor Hybrid (CC BY 2.0 FR)
I have a lot of sheep.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (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).