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

THEME

Yes, THEME was the Wordle answer on September 9, 2022 (Wordle #447).

As an opener, it rules out about 90.0% of possible answers.

Open Solver with THEME Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /θiːm/

Noun

A subject, now especially of a talk or an artistic piece; a topic.

Noun

A recurring idea; a motif.

“variations on the theme of entrepreneurial resourcefulness”

Verb

To give a theme to.

“We themed the birthday party around superheroes.”

Verb

To apply a theme to; to change the visual appearance and/or layout of (software).

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: September 9, 2022 (#447).

See the full page for that puzzle: September 9, 2022 (#447).

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

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How verification and withdrawal work

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How THEME performs as a guess

THEME 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 74.6% of games, misses completely in 25.4%, and leaves about 238 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,176 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.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

T___E T in the 1st position and E in the 5th position T__M_ T in the 1st position and M in the 4th position _H__E H in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe THEME 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.

4.38 Entropy (bits)
238 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
90.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 44% of evaluated openers
1.57 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How THEME 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
100% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#10,176 Rank among openers
Opening with THEME solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.77 average. It ranks #10,176 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
48
3 guesses
768
4 guesses
1,249
5 guesses
262
6 guesses
26
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:
ET

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
75%
Green tile
35%
All gray
25%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S H I L Y
T H E M E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches THEME in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

THEME can come back 82 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

604 answers
244 answers
218 answers
212 answers
94 answers
81 answers
72 answers
65 answers
54 answers
53 answers
47 answers
45 answers
44 answers
41 answers
39 answers
31 answers
29 answers
29 answers
24 answers
24 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

T1H4E1M3E1
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Try next

SALON RAINY SAINT SORAL SOLAR SAURY

Strategy after playing THEME

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing THEME:

25% chance
Suggested:
SALON
10% chance
Suggested:
RAINY
9% chance
Suggested:
SAINT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

25.4% →
SALON 5.86 bits
10.3% →
RAINY 4.99 bits
9.2% →
SAINT 5.46 bits
8.9% →
SORAL 4.94 bits
4.0% →
SOLAR 4.88 bits
3.4% →
SAURY 4.77 bits
3.0% →
SLART 4.33 bits
2.7% →
ROANY 4.67 bits
2.3% →
COAST 4.03 bits
2.2% →
CLARY 4.31 bits

Research on THEME

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

Optimal play

Opening with THEME, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses and ranks #8,794 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.89 guesses at best and is rank #4,043 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 3.76, 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 THEEM.

Rhymes with DREAM CREAM STEAM CREME GLEAM

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, THEME is a kind of content or thought.

Synonyms idea report PAPER base subject TOPIC

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
THEME sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 42 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
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 8, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 38 of 100. Raters found it difficult to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.4 of 5).

In a sentence

I like the theme song.
© tatoeba.org contributor Eccles17 (CC BY 2.0 FR)
What is the main theme?
© tatoeba.org contributor tieguy (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).