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

SOUND

Yes, SOUND was the Wordle answer on February 14, 2023 (Wordle #605).

As an opener, it rules out about 92.0% of possible answers.

Open Solver with SOUND Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈsaʊ̯nd/[ˈsaʊ̯nd]/ˈsæʊ̯nd/

Adjective

Healthy.

“He was safe and sound.”

Adjective

Complete, solid, or secure.

“Fred assured me the floorboards were sound.”

Adverb

Soundly.

Interjection

Yes; used to show agreement or understanding.

“I found my jacket. — Sound.”

Alternative forms: soune, sownd, sowne

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 14, 2023 (#605).

See the full page for that puzzle: February 14, 2023 (#605).

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 SOUND performs as a guess

SOUND 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 76.5% of games, misses completely in 23.5%, and leaves about 191 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,201 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.60 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___D S in the 1st position and D in the 5th position S__N_ S in the 1st position and N in the 4th position _O__D O in the 2nd position and D in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe SOUND 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.

4.77 Entropy (bits)
191 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
92.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 70% of evaluated openers
1.18 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SOUND 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.

3.60 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#1,201 Rank among openers
Opening with SOUND left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.60 average. It ranks #1,201 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
57
3 guesses
1,004
4 guesses
1,118
5 guesses
155
6 guesses
17
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:
NOSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
39%
All gray
24%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S C O L D
S O U N D

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SOUND in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

SOUND can come back 98 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

559 answers
164 answers
140 answers
139 answers
119 answers
117 answers
106 answers
102 answers
61 answers
53 answers
48 answers
45 answers
45 answers
38 answers
33 answers
31 answers
30 answers
30 answers
28 answers
26 answers
25 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
21 answers
20 answers
20 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1O1U1N1D2
Total: 6 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Try next

CARLE PLATE LINER TALER MARLE PRATE

Strategy after playing SOUND

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SOUND:

24% chance
Suggested:
CARLE
7% chance
Suggested:
PLATE
6% chance
Suggested:
LINER

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

23.5% →
CARLE 6.29 bits
6.9% →
PLATE 5.52 bits
5.9% →
LINER 5.21 bits
5.9% →
TALER 5.20 bits
5.0% →
MARLE 4.62 bits
4.9% →
PRATE 5.46 bits
4.5% →
RAILE 5.46 bits
4.3% →
CARLE 4.87 bits
2.6% →
TEARY 4.83 bits
2.2% →
BARON 4.38 bits

Research on SOUND

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

Optimal play

Opening with SOUND, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.65 guesses and ranks #1,731 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 SOUND can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.60, at or below the proven-optimal 3.65, 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 SOWND.

Rhymes with FOUND ROUND BOUND POUND WOUND

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SOUND is a kind of property or sensation.

Synonyms good go PHONE LEGAL VOICE HEAVY

Opposites silence weak shallow incomplete

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SOUND sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 141 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.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sound (5.0 of 5).

In a sentence

I like the sound of that.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
And what was this sound?
© tatoeba.org contributor moman (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; Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).