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

SPINE

Yes, SPINE was the Wordle answer on November 21, 2024 (Wordle #1251).

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

Open Solver with SPINE Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /spaɪn/

Noun

A series of bones situated at the back from the head to the pelvis of a human, or from the head to the tail of an animal, enclosing the spinal cord and providing support for the thorax and abdomen.

Noun

Something resembling a backbone, such as a ridge, or a long, central structure from which other structures radiate.

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: November 21, 2024 (#1251).

See the full page for that puzzle: November 21, 2024 (#1251).

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

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How SPINE performs as a guess

SPINE 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 84.7% of games, misses completely in 15.3%, and leaves about 131 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,464 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.61 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__N_ S in the 1st position and N 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 SPINE.

First-turn measures

All four describe SPINE 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.

5.20 Entropy (bits)
131 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
94.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 92% of evaluated openers
0.75 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SPINE 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.

3.61 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#1,464 Rank among openers
Opening with SPINE left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.61 average. It ranks #1,464 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
83
3 guesses
957
4 guesses
1,121
5 guesses
173
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:
EINS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
85%
Green tile
41%
All gray
15%

Example solver route

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

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SPINE in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

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

364 answers
281 answers
148 answers
129 answers
97 answers
85 answers
78 answers
78 answers
68 answers
63 answers
57 answers
52 answers
42 answers
39 answers
38 answers
38 answers
36 answers
34 answers
32 answers
31 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
22 answers
21 answers
19 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1P3I1N1E1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Try next

CORAL ALTER GRATE RATIO CLARY TONAL

Strategy after playing SPINE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SPINE:

15% chance
Suggested:
CORAL
12% chance
Suggested:
ALTER
6% chance
Suggested:
GRATE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

15.3% →
CORAL 5.97 bits
11.8% →
ALTER 5.38 bits
6.2% →
GRATE 4.56 bits
5.4% →
RATIO 4.98 bits
4.1% →
CLARY 4.79 bits
3.6% →
TONAL 4.79 bits
3.3% →
OATER 4.36 bits
3.3% →
TRASH 4.78 bits
2.9% →
POUTY 4.79 bits
2.7% →
ROAST 4.20 bits

Research on SPINE

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

Optimal play

Opening with SPINE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.62 guesses and ranks #665 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.76 guesses at best and is rank #509 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.61, at or below the proven-optimal 3.62, 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 SPYN.

Rhymes with SHINE STEIN ALIGN SWINE THINE

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SPINE is a kind of structure or projection.

Synonyms back sticker spur backbone THORN

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SPINE sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 9 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 8, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 88 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.2 of 5).

In a sentence

The book was split along its spine.
© tatoeba.org contributor darinmex (CC BY 2.0 FR)
It sent a rush down my spine.
© tatoeba.org contributor meshbags (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).