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

SLOPE

Yes, SLOPE was the Wordle answer on December 23, 2023 (Wordle #917).

As an opener, it rules out about 95.2% of possible answers.

Open Solver with SLOPE Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /sloʊp//sləʊp/

Noun

A surface that either inclines or declines in a regular manner from the perspective of an observer.

“the slope”

Noun

An area of ground that tends evenly upward or downward.

“I had to climb a small slope to get to the site.”

Verb

To tend steadily upward or downward.

“The road slopes sharply down at that point.”

Verb

To form with a slope; to give an oblique or slanting direction to; to incline or slant.

“to slope the ground in a garden; to slope a piece of cloth in cutting a garment”

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: December 23, 2023 (#917).

See the full page for that puzzle: December 23, 2023 (#917).

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

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How SLOPE performs as a guess

SLOPE 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 87.2% of games, misses completely in 12.8%, and leaves about 114 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #707 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.59 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__P_ S in the 1st position and P in the 4th position _L__E L in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe SLOPE 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.

5.29 Entropy (bits)
114 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
95.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 95% of evaluated openers
0.66 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SLOPE 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.

3.59 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#707 Rank among openers
Opening with SLOPE solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.59 average. It ranks #707 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
89
3 guesses
961
4 guesses
1,136
5 guesses
155
6 guesses
12
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
2 vowels
Common:
ELOS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
87%
Green tile
42%
All gray
13%

Example solver route

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

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SLOPE in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

SLOPE can come back 122 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

303 answers
256 answers
175 answers
135 answers
112 answers
92 answers
90 answers
65 answers
62 answers
61 answers
53 answers
46 answers
46 answers
40 answers
37 answers
35 answers
35 answers
32 answers
31 answers
30 answers
29 answers
28 answers
27 answers
26 answers
26 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1L1O1P3E1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Try next

TRAIN DETER RAINY REACT STANK RENAL

Strategy after playing SLOPE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SLOPE:

13% chance
Suggested:
TRAIN
11% chance
Suggested:
DETER
7% chance
Suggested:
RAINY

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.8% →
TRAIN 5.99 bits
10.8% →
DETER 5.53 bits
7.4% →
RAINY 4.91 bits
5.7% →
REACT 4.57 bits
4.7% →
RAINY 4.80 bits
3.9% →
STANK 4.64 bits
3.8% →
RENAL 4.61 bits
2.7% →
TRASH 4.58 bits
2.6% →
MOVER 4.09 bits
2.6% →
BRANE 3.88 bits

Research on SLOPE

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

Optimal play

Opening with SLOPE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.62 guesses and ranks #461 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.74 guesses at best and is rank #191 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.59, at or below the proven-optimal 3.62, 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 SLOHP.

Rhymes with SCOPE GROPE ELOPE SHOPE

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SLOPE is a kind of formation or position.

Synonyms side PITCH gradient incline

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SLOPE sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 8 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 B1); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 7, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 88 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.7 of 5).

In a sentence

I ran down the slope.
© tatoeba.org contributor sundown (CC BY 2.0 FR)
He was standing on the slope.
© tatoeba.org contributor Wassnen (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).