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

SUMAC

Yes, SUMAC was the Wordle answer on January 18, 2026 (Wordle #1674).

As an opener, it rules out about 91.3% of possible answers.

Open Solver with SUMAC Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈs(j)uːmæk//ˈʃuː-//ˈsuːˌmæk/

Noun

Any of various shrubs or small trees of the genus Rhus and certain other genera in Anacardiaceae.

Noun

Dried and chopped-up leaves and stems of a plant of the genus Rhus, particularly tanner's sumac (see sense 1), used for dyeing and tanning leather or for medicinal purposes.

Verb

To apply a preparation of sumac to (an object), for example, to a piece of leather to tan it.

Alternative forms: shumac, shumack, sumach, sumack

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: January 18, 2026 (#1674).

See the full page for that puzzle: January 18, 2026 (#1674).

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

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How SUMAC performs as a guess

SUMAC 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 77.8% of games, misses completely in 22.2%, and leaves about 207 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,157 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.64 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___C S in the 1st position and C in the 5th position S__A_ S in the 1st position and A in the 4th position _U__C U in the 2nd position and C in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe SUMAC 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.

4.56 Entropy (bits)
207 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
91.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 56% of evaluated openers
1.39 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SUMAC 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.

3.64 Avg guesses
99.83% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#3,157 Rank among openers
Opening with SUMAC left 4 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 3.64 average. It ranks #3,157 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
58
3 guesses
931
4 guesses
1,172
5 guesses
173
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:
ASU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
78%
Green tile
32%
All gray
22%

Example solver route

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

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SUMAC in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

SUMAC can come back 95 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

527 answers
338 answers
145 answers
127 answers
91 answers
90 answers
82 answers
82 answers
77 answers
73 answers
67 answers
63 answers
55 answers
34 answers
33 answers
30 answers
27 answers
25 answers
24 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
20 answers
17 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1U1M3A1C3
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Try next

TRIED TALER TRINE CHORE TRONE CRANE

Strategy after playing SUMAC

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SUMAC:

22% chance
Suggested:
TRIED
14% chance
Suggested:
TALER
6% chance
Suggested:
TRINE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

22.2% →
TRIED 6.12 bits
14.2% →
TALER 5.39 bits
6.1% →
TRINE 5.17 bits
5.3% →
CHORE 5.29 bits
3.8% →
TRONE 5.34 bits
3.8% →
CRANE 4.86 bits
3.5% →
TALER 4.61 bits
3.5% →
TROPE 5.37 bits
3.2% →
FRITE 4.31 bits
3.1% →
LEANT 4.49 bits

Research on SUMAC

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

Optimal play

Opening with SUMAC, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,330 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.81 guesses at best and is rank #1,737 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, at or below the proven-optimal 3.71, 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

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SUMAC is a kind of wood or bush.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SUMAC 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).