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

SPADE

Yes, SPADE was the Wordle answer on October 16, 2022 (Wordle #484).

As an opener, it rules out about 94.7% of possible answers.

Open Solver with SPADE Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /speɪ̯d//sped/

Noun

A garden tool with a handle and a flat blade for digging. Not to be confused with a shovel which is used for moving earth or other materials.

Noun

A cutting instrument used in flensing a whale.

Verb

To turn over soil with a spade to loosen the ground for planting.

Verb

To move with a spade, or as with a spade.

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: October 16, 2022 (#484).

See the full page for that puzzle: October 16, 2022 (#484).

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 SPADE performs as a guess

SPADE 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 85.8% of games, misses completely in 14.2%, and leaves about 125 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,066 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.62 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__D_ S in the 1st position and D in the 4th position _P__E P in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe SPADE 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.

5.15 Entropy (bits)
125 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
94.7% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 90% of evaluated openers
0.80 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SPADE 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.

3.62 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#2,066 Rank among openers
Opening with SPADE 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 3.62 average. It ranks #2,066 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
75
3 guesses
921
4 guesses
1,186
5 guesses
157
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:
AES

Feedback chances

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

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L U M P
S P A C E
S P A D E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SPADE in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

SPADE can come back 108 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

336 answers
230 answers
227 answers
119 answers
101 answers
101 answers
78 answers
71 answers
71 answers
70 answers
66 answers
47 answers
40 answers
38 answers
35 answers
34 answers
34 answers
33 answers
32 answers
28 answers
27 answers
26 answers
25 answers
25 answers
25 answers
23 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1P3A1D2E1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Try next

COUNT TENOR TALON TOILE ALTER STINK

Strategy after playing SPADE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SPADE:

14% chance
Suggested:
COUNT
10% chance
Suggested:
TENOR
10% chance
Suggested:
TALON

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

14.2% →
COUNT 5.88 bits
9.7% →
TENOR 5.16 bits
9.6% →
TALON 5.26 bits
5.0% →
TOILE 4.45 bits
4.3% →
ALTER 4.66 bits
4.3% →
STINK 4.49 bits
3.3% →
ROUND 4.82 bits
3.0% →
DINER 4.66 bits
3.0% →
POUTY 4.86 bits
2.9% →
CRINE 4.27 bits

Research on SPADE

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

Optimal play

Opening with SPADE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.65 guesses and ranks #1,648 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 SPADE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.62, 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 SPAYD.

Rhymes with TRADE GRADE BLADE SHADE EVADE

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SPADE is a kind of card or shovel.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SPADE 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 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 89 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.9 of 5).

In a sentence

Call a spade a spade.
© tatoeba.org contributor j_hpan (CC BY 2.0 FR)
We call a spade a spade.
© tatoeba.org contributor Nylez (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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).