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

TORCH

Yes, TORCH was the Wordle answer on September 25, 2024 (Wordle #1194).

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈtɔːtʃ/[ˈtʰɔːt͡ʃ] ~ [ˈtʰo̞ːt͡ʃ]/ˈtoːtʃ/

Noun

A stick of wood or plant fibres twisted together, with one end soaked in a flammable substance such as resin or tallow and set on fire, which is held in the hand, put into a wall bracket, or stuck into the ground, and used chiefly as a light source.

“The mob of angry villagers carried torches and pitchforks to the vampire’s castle.”

Noun

A flower which is red or red-orange in colour like a flame.

Verb

To illuminate or provide (a place) with torches (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1).

Verb

To intentionally destroy (something) by setting it on fire, especially when committing arson in furtherance of some other criminal act (e.g. insurance fraud or the destruction of evidence).

“Some hoodlums had torched a derelict automobile, which emitted a ghastly pall of thick, black smoke that filled the street.”

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

Etymology

The noun is derived from Middle English torch, torche (“large candle; lighted stick; (figurative) sunbeam”), from Old French torche, torque (“torch; bundle of (twisted) straw”) (modern French torche); further etymology uncertain, probably from Vulgar Latin *torca (“coiled object”) (referring to a torch made from twisted plant fibres dipped in a flammable substance such as pitch), from Latin torqua, a variant of torquis (“collar of twisted metal, torque; wreath”), from torqueō (“to twist, wind”),…

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

One syllable Say it TAWRCH.

Rhymes with PORCH

Related meanings

Synonyms flashlight

In a sentence

We all had a torch.
© tatoeba.org contributor sundown (CC BY 2.0 FR)
No one had a torch.
© tatoeba.org contributor sundown (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use TORCH in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 92.7% of possible answers.

Open Solver with TORCH Open Word Finder

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 25, 2024 (#1194).

See the full page for that puzzle: September 25, 2024 (#1194).

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

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TORCH in Connections

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

How TORCH performs as a guess

TORCH 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 79.5% of games, misses completely in 20.5%, and leaves about 175 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #744 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.59 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___H T in the 1st position and H in the 5th position T__C_ T in the 1st position and C in the 4th position _O__H O in the 2nd position and H in the 5th position TO_CH T in the 1st position, O in the 2nd position, C in the 4th position, and H in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe TORCH 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.

4.95 Entropy (bits)
175 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
92.7% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How TORCH 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.

3.59 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#744 Rank among openers
Opening with TORCH solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.59 average. It ranks #744 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
67
3 guesses
1,040
4 guesses
1,046
5 guesses
184
6 guesses
16

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
ORT

Feedback chances

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

Example solver route

R O A T E
T O R S O
T O R C H

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches TORCH in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

TORCH can come back 120 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

489 answers
268 answers
201 answers
116 answers
99 answers
86 answers
74 answers
64 answers
62 answers
56 answers
48 answers
45 answers
41 answers
41 answers
37 answers
32 answers
25 answers
23 answers
23 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

T1O1R1C3H4
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Try next

AISLE LAIDE SLANE ALINE SADLY GRADE

Strategy after playing TORCH

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing TORCH:

21% chance
Suggested:
AISLE
11% chance
Suggested:
LAIDE
8% chance
Suggested:
SLANE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

20.5% →
AISLE 6.22 bits
11.2% →
LAIDE 5.29 bits
8.4% →
SLANE 5.84 bits
4.9% →
ALINE 5.33 bits
4.2% →
SADLY 4.63 bits
3.6% →
GRADE 4.28 bits
3.1% →
MAILE 5.12 bits
2.7% →
SEARE 4.68 bits
2.6% →
SMILE 4.99 bits
2.3% →
PAISE 4.59 bits

Research on TORCH

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

Optimal play

Opening with TORCH, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.64 guesses and ranks #1,444 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

No guaranteed hard-mode solve In hard mode, no strategy that opens with TORCH can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.59, at or below the proven-optimal 3.64, 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
TORCH sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 5 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: 86 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.1 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).