Possible answer Not used yet C tier for first-turn info

SWARM

SWARM is on the solver's possible-answer list and has no appearance in our globally completed Wordle history.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /swɔɹm//swɔːm/

Noun

A large number of insects, especially when in motion or (for bees) migrating to a new colony.

Noun

A mass of people, animals or things in motion or turmoil.

“a swarm of meteorites”

Verb

To move as a swarm.

Verb

To teem, or be overrun with insects, people, etc.

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

Etymology

From Middle English swarm, from Old English swearm (“swarm, multitude”), from Proto-West Germanic *swarm, from Proto-Germanic *swarmaz (“swarm, dizziness”), from Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“to buzz, hum”).

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

One syllable Say it SWAWRM.

Rhymes with STORM

Related meanings

Synonyms stream CLOUD DROVE pour HORDE

In a sentence

The crowd started to swarm the shopping center.
© tatoeba.org contributor swolesuki (CC BY 2.0 FR)
A swarm of insects hit the windows.
© tatoeba.org contributor Amastan (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use SWARM in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 92.0% of possible answers.

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

No completed appearance

No appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.

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

SWARM in Connections

2 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.

How SWARM performs as a guess

SWARM 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 80.2% of games, misses completely in 19.8%, and leaves about 191 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,084 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.

First-turn measures

All four describe SWARM 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.

4.58 Entropy (bits)
191 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
92.0% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SWARM 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
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#6,084 Rank among openers
Opening with SWARM solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.69 average. It ranks #6,084 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
53
3 guesses
867
4 guesses
1,204
5 guesses
219
6 guesses
10

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
ARS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
80%
Green tile
30%
All gray
20%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S W I N G
S W A R M

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SWARM in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

SWARM can come back 91 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

471 answers
291 answers
258 answers
149 answers
121 answers
86 answers
86 answers
78 answers
51 answers
51 answers
50 answers
49 answers
48 answers
43 answers
38 answers
36 answers
31 answers
31 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
22 answers
21 answers
16 answers
16 answers
14 answers
14 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1W4A1R1M3
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing SWARM

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SWARM:

20% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
12% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
11% chance
Suggested:
CLOTE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

19.8% →
TOILE 6.08 bits
12.2% →
TOILE 5.22 bits
10.8% →
CLOTE 5.36 bits
6.2% →
TOILE 5.18 bits
5.1% →
TALER 4.71 bits
3.6% →
POLEY 4.88 bits
3.6% →
TOUSE 5.04 bits
3.3% →
CLONE 4.74 bits
2.1% →
DRICE 3.91 bits
2.1% →
WIDEN 4.69 bits

Research on SWARM

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

Optimal play

Opening with SWARM, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.72 guesses and ranks #6,472 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.83 guesses at best and is rank #2,278 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, at or below the proven-optimal 3.72, 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SWARM sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 3 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B1); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 9, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 69 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.9 of 5).

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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).