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

SWEEP

Yes, SWEEP was the Wordle answer on March 15, 2023 (Wordle #634).

As an opener, it rules out about 87.1% of possible answers.

Open Solver with SWEEP Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /swiːp//swip/

Verb

To clean (a surface) by means of a stroking motion of a broom or brush.

Verb

To move through a (horizontal) arc or similar long stroke.

“The wind sweeps across the plain.”

Noun

A single action of sweeping.

“Give the front steps a quick sweep to get rid of those fallen leaves.”

Noun

The person who steers a dragon boat.

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: March 15, 2023 (#634).

See the full page for that puzzle: March 15, 2023 (#634).

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

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How SWEEP performs as a guess

SWEEP 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 69.8% of games, misses completely in 30.2%, and leaves about 307 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #11,877 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.81 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___P S in the 1st position and P in the 5th position S__E_ S in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _W__P W in the 2nd position and P in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe SWEEP 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.

4.11 Entropy (bits)
307 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
87.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 28% of evaluated openers
1.83 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SWEEP 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.

3.81 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#11,877 Rank among openers
Opening with SWEEP solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.73 means those games clustered within about 0.73 of a guess of the 3.81 average. It ranks #11,877 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
55
3 guesses
711
4 guesses
1,231
5 guesses
343
6 guesses
13
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

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ES

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
70%
Green tile
34%
All gray
30%

Example solver route

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

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SWEEP in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

SWEEP can come back 84 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

717 answers
342 answers
165 answers
155 answers
116 answers
104 answers
67 answers
53 answers
52 answers
50 answers
49 answers
32 answers
30 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
23 answers
21 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
11 answers
10 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1W4E1E1P3
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Try next

TALON RAILE SAULT RAINY ROAST PATIO

Strategy after playing SWEEP

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SWEEP:

30% chance
Suggested:
TALON
14% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
7% chance
Suggested:
SAULT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

30.2% →
TALON 5.80 bits
14.4% →
RAILE 5.24 bits
7.0% →
SAULT 4.60 bits
6.5% →
RAINY 4.39 bits
4.9% →
ROAST 4.88 bits
4.4% →
PATIO 5.10 bits
2.8% →
ROANY 4.64 bits
2.2% →
SLART 3.90 bits
2.2% →
IRATE 4.37 bits
2.1% →
ALURE 4.27 bits

Research on SWEEP

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

Optimal play

Opening with SWEEP, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.80 guesses and ranks #10,523 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.93 guesses at best and is rank #4,980 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.81; proven optimal play reaches 3.80. 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.

How it sounds

One syllable Say it SWEEP.

Rhymes with SLEEP CHEAP SHEEP STEEP CREEP

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SWEEP is a kind of range or cleaner.

Synonyms CROSS SWING drag BRUSH span slam

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SWEEP 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.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 75 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.4 of 5).

In a sentence

Did you sweep the house?
© tatoeba.org contributor Amastan (CC BY 2.0 FR)
I have to sweep my room.
© tatoeba.org contributor CM (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); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).