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

SPEED

Yes, SPEED was the Wordle answer on December 26, 2025 (Wordle #1651).

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /spiːd/

Noun

The state of moving quickly or the capacity for rapid motion.

“How does Usain Bolt run at that speed?”

Noun

The rate of motion or action, specifically the magnitude of the velocity; the rate distance is traversed in a given time.

“Speed limits provide information to the drivers about the safe speed to travel in average conditions.”

Interjection

Called by the soundman when the recording equipment has reached running speed and is ready to go.

Verb

To go fast.

“The Ferrari was speeding along the road.”

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Etymology

From Middle English sped (“prosperity, good luck, quickness, success”), from Old English spēd (“success”), from Proto-West Germanic *spōdi (“prosperity, success”), from Proto-West Germanic *spōan, from Proto-Germanic *spōaną (“to prosper, succeed, be happy”), from Proto-Indo-European *speh₁- (“to prosper, turn out well”).

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

One syllable Say it SPEED.

Rhymes with BREED FREED GREED BLEED CREED

Related meanings

Synonyms race UPPER rush HURRY velocity zip

In a sentence

Can we speed it up?
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
You need to speed up.
© tatoeba.org contributor Hybrid (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use SPEED in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 89.5% of possible answers.

Open Solver with SPEED Open Word Finder

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 26, 2025 (#1651).

See the full page for that puzzle: December 26, 2025 (#1651).

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

The answer word and timezone are used transiently to verify this page, then discarded. The receipt prevents duplicate submissions and lets this browser withdraw later; anyone with that token can withdraw, so keep browser-data exports private. Read the full privacy details.

SPEED in Connections

8 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . Showing the 5 most recent. A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.

How SPEED performs as a guess

SPEED is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,384 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 73.4% of games, misses completely in 26.6%, and leaves about 250 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,170 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.74 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__E_ S in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _P__D P in the 2nd position and D in the 5th position SP_ED S in the 1st position, P in the 2nd position, E in the 4th position, and D in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe SPEED 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.

4.37 Entropy (bits)
250 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
89.5% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SPEED 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.

3.74 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#9,170 Rank among openers
Opening with SPEED solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.74 average. It ranks #9,170 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
53
3 guesses
779
4 guesses
1,251
5 guesses
256
6 guesses
14

Composition

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ES

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
73%
Green tile
36%
All gray
27%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S I L E N
S H E E P
S P E E D

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SPEED in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

SPEED can come back 88 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

634 answers
290 answers
167 answers
143 answers
117 answers
111 answers
103 answers
71 answers
56 answers
54 answers
51 answers
43 answers
39 answers
30 answers
29 answers
24 answers
23 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
22 answers
17 answers
15 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1P3E1E1D2
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Try next

TALON RAILE SLANT ROANY ROAST PARTY

Strategy after playing SPEED

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SPEED:

27% chance
Suggested:
TALON
12% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
7% chance
Suggested:
SLANT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

26.6% →
TALON 5.90 bits
12.2% →
RAILE 5.29 bits
7.0% →
SLANT 4.62 bits
6.0% →
ROANY 4.22 bits
4.9% →
ROAST 4.90 bits
4.7% →
PARTY 4.82 bits
4.3% →
DROIT 4.95 bits
3.0% →
RAILE 4.44 bits
2.3% →
ALURE 4.42 bits
2.3% →
ROUTE 4.17 bits

Research on SPEED

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

Optimal play

Opening with SPEED, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.74 guesses and ranks #7,380 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 SPEED can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.74; proven optimal play reaches 3.74. 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SPEED sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 100 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.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 62 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.

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).