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

TOTES

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

As an opener, it rules out about 93.2% of possible answers.

Open Solver with TOTES Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of tote

Verb

third-person singular simple present indicative of tote

Adverb

Totally.

“That was totes like the best night ever!”

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

No

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

Past Wordle answer

Not used yet

No past answer date found.

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

How TOTES performs as a guess

Wordle accepts TOTES 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 84.0% of games, misses completely in 16.0%, and leaves about 161 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,311 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.75 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___S T in the 1st position and S in the 5th position T__E_ T in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _O__S O in the 2nd position and S in the 5th position TO_ES T in the 1st position, O in the 2nd position, E in the 4th position, and S in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe TOTES 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.

4.70 Entropy (bits)
161 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
93.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 65% of evaluated openers
1.25 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How TOTES 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.

3.75 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#9,311 Rank among openers
Opening with TOTES left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.75 average. It ranks #9,311 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
56
3 guesses
782
4 guesses
1,240
5 guesses
250
6 guesses
24
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:
EOST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
84%
Green tile
33%
All gray
16%

Feedback distribution

TOTES can come back 86 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

379 answers
320 answers
164 answers
158 answers
154 answers
117 answers
100 answers
84 answers
78 answers
68 answers
66 answers
43 answers
40 answers
40 answers
40 answers
37 answers
32 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
23 answers
19 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

T1O1T1E1S1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 5 points

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

Try next

CAIRN LEARE SHALY RAINY ACORN CLARY

Strategy after playing TOTES

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing TOTES:

16% chance
Suggested:
CAIRN
13% chance
Suggested:
LEARE
7% chance
Suggested:
SHALY

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

16.0% →
CAIRN 5.88 bits
13.5% →
LEARE 5.44 bits
6.9% →
SHALY 5.04 bits
6.7% →
RAINY 4.40 bits
6.5% →
ACORN 5.14 bits
4.9% →
CLARY 4.62 bits
4.2% →
PEARE 4.66 bits
3.5% →
FAINT 4.89 bits
3.3% →
LEARE 4.78 bits
2.9% →
STAIN 4.30 bits

Research on TOTES

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

Optimal play

Opening with TOTES, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.75 guesses and ranks #7,844 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 TOTES can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.75, at or below the proven-optimal 3.75, 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 TOHTS.

Rhymes with NOTES VOTES BOATS COATS GOATS

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, TOTES is a kind of amount or child.

Synonyms TOTAL add sum toddler TALLY tug

Opposites subtract

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
TOTES sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.

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).