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

SONAR

Yes, SONAR was the Wordle answer on July 28, 2026 (Wordle #1865).

As an opener, it rules out about 96.2% of possible answers.

Open Solver with SONAR Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈsoʊ.nɑːɹ//ˈsəʊ.nɑː/

Noun

Artificial echolocation by use of electronic equipment, with hydrophones to locate objects underwater, using the same wave-analysis principles that radar uses.

“They were able to detect the sunken wreck using sonar.”

Noun

A device that provides such echolocation.

“They finally bought a new sonar to replace the 40-year-old unit that sometimes didn't work right.”

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: July 28, 2026 (#1865).

See the full page for that puzzle: July 28, 2026 (#1865).

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 SONAR performs as a guess

SONAR 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 88.9% of games, misses completely in 11.1%, and leaves about 90 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #385 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.58 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___R S in the 1st position and R in the 5th position S__A_ S in the 1st position and A in the 4th position _O__R O in the 2nd position and R in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe SONAR 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.

5.52 Entropy (bits)
90 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
96.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 99% of evaluated openers
0.42 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SONAR 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.

3.58 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#385 Rank among openers
Opening with SONAR left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.58 average. It ranks #385 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
70
3 guesses
1,042
4 guesses
1,061
5 guesses
165
6 guesses
14
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:
ANORS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
89%
Green tile
43%
All gray
11%

Example solver route

R O A T E
B A L M Y
S O N A R

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SONAR in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

SONAR can come back 123 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

264 answers
198 answers
151 answers
116 answers
89 answers
85 answers
82 answers
67 answers
61 answers
60 answers
59 answers
55 answers
55 answers
54 answers
49 answers
42 answers
37 answers
35 answers
34 answers
33 answers
31 answers
30 answers
29 answers
28 answers
28 answers
27 answers
27 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1O1N1A1R1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 6 points

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

Try next

TILDE TABLE TRICE TIARE CLOTE TUILE

Strategy after playing SONAR

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SONAR:

11% chance
Suggested:
TILDE
8% chance
Suggested:
TABLE
6% chance
Suggested:
TRICE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

11.1% →
TILDE 5.94 bits
8.3% →
TABLE 5.34 bits
6.4% →
TRICE 5.38 bits
4.9% →
TIARE 4.67 bits
3.7% →
CLOTE 4.31 bits
3.6% →
TUILE 5.00 bits
3.5% →
TUILE 5.00 bits
2.8% →
BLITE 4.94 bits
2.6% →
THALE 4.49 bits
2.5% →
ALATE 4.46 bits

Research on SONAR

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

Optimal play

Opening with SONAR, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.61 guesses and ranks #394 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 SONAR can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.58, at or below the proven-optimal 3.61, 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

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it SOHNAHR.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SONAR is a kind of instrument.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SONAR sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 2 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 12, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 46 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.

In a sentence

Sonar uses sound waves to 'see' in the water.
© tatoeba.org contributor Hybrid (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Sonar is short for Sound Navigation and Ranging.
© tatoeba.org contributor Hybrid (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); Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0).