Accepted guess Not a possible answer C tier for first-turn info

TEMPT

TEMPT is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /tɛmpt//tɛmt/

Verb

To provoke someone to do wrong, especially by promising a reward; to entice.

“She tempted me to eat the apple.”

Verb

To attract; to allure.

“Its glossy skin tempted me.”

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

Etymology

From Middle English tempten, from Old French tempter (French: tenter), from Latin temptare, from tentare (“to handle, touch, try, test, tempt”), frequentative of tendere (“to stretch”). Displaced native English costning (“temptation”).

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

One syllable Say it TEHMPT.

Related meanings

Synonyms influence invite CHARM lure allure entice

In a sentence

I didn't mean to tempt you.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Are you trying to tempt me here?
© tatoeba.org contributor CM (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use TEMPT in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 88.0% 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

No

The solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.

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.

How TEMPT performs as a guess

Wordle accepts TEMPT as a guess, but the solver does not list it as a possible answer.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 73.8% of games, misses completely in 26.2%, and leaves about 285 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,405 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.77 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 TEMPT 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.

4.07 Entropy (bits)
285 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
88.0% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How TEMPT 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.

3.77 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#10,405 Rank among openers
Opening with TEMPT left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.77 average. It ranks #10,405 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
44
3 guesses
756
4 guesses
1,270
5 guesses
260
6 guesses
22

Composition

4/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
ET

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
74%
Green tile
28%
All gray
26%

Feedback distribution

TEMPT can come back 73 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

624 answers
442 answers
137 answers
119 answers
111 answers
99 answers
98 answers
91 answers
82 answers
58 answers
56 answers
53 answers
33 answers
28 answers
23 answers
21 answers
20 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
9 answers
8 answers
8 answers
8 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

T1E1M3P3T1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing TEMPT

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing TEMPT:

26% chance
Suggested:
SALON
19% chance
Suggested:
SOLAR
6% chance
Suggested:
CARLE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

26.2% →
SALON 5.77 bits
18.5% →
SOLAR 5.30 bits
5.7% →
CARLE 4.43 bits
5.0% →
SONAR 5.04 bits
4.7% →
SONAR 4.96 bits
4.2% →
SORAL 4.99 bits
4.1% →
SORAL 4.99 bits
3.8% →
ARISE 4.91 bits
3.4% →
SOLAR 4.74 bits
2.4% →
RAILE 4.59 bits

Research on TEMPT

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

Optimal play

Opening with TEMPT, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.79 guesses and ranks #10,468 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 #4,836 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.77, at or below the proven-optimal 3.79, 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
TEMPT sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 2 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 10, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 39 of 100. Raters found it difficult to picture.

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).