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

SOWER

Yes, SOWER was the Wordle answer on July 31, 2021 (Wordle #42).

As an opener, it rules out about 94.5% of possible answers.

Open Solver with SOWER Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈsəʊɚ//ˈsaʊɚ/

Noun

One who or that which sows.

Adjective

Archaic form of sour.

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 31, 2021 (#42).

See the full page for that puzzle: July 31, 2021 (#42).

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

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How SOWER performs as a guess

SOWER 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 85.5% of games, misses completely in 14.5%, and leaves about 130 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,983 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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__E_ S in the 1st position and E 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 SOWER.

First-turn measures

All four describe SOWER 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.

5.07 Entropy (bits)
130 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
94.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 87% of evaluated openers
0.87 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SOWER 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.

3.69 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#5,983 Rank among openers
Opening with SOWER solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.69 average. It ranks #5,983 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
74
3 guesses
843
4 guesses
1,198
5 guesses
223
6 guesses
15
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:
EORS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
86%
Green tile
40%
All gray
14%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S M O C K
S O B E R
S O W E R

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SOWER in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

SOWER can come back 107 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

344 answers
267 answers
150 answers
144 answers
115 answers
108 answers
97 answers
86 answers
70 answers
69 answers
68 answers
65 answers
49 answers
48 answers
35 answers
32 answers
31 answers
31 answers
27 answers
27 answers
22 answers
21 answers
21 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
18 answers
15 answers
15 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1O1W4E1R1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Try next

PAINT DEALT CAIRN CRATE SLANT HOTLY

Strategy after playing SOWER

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SOWER:

14% chance
Suggested:
PAINT
11% chance
Suggested:
DEALT
6% chance
Suggested:
CAIRN

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

14.5% →
PAINT 5.73 bits
11.2% →
DEALT 5.52 bits
6.3% →
CAIRN 4.87 bits
6.1% →
CRATE 4.71 bits
4.8% →
SLANT 4.74 bits
4.5% →
HOTLY 3.86 bits
4.1% →
TALON 4.92 bits
3.6% →
LAIDE 3.43 bits
2.9% →
ALIEN 4.39 bits
2.9% →
PLATE 4.61 bits

Research on SOWER

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

Optimal play

Opening with SOWER, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.67 guesses and ranks #3,073 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 SOWER can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.69; proven optimal play reaches 3.67. 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

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

Rhymes with LOWER ROWER MOWER

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SOWER is a kind of farmer.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SOWER sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.

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).