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

TOXIC

Yes, TOXIC was the Wordle answer on March 5, 2023 (Wordle #624).

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈtɒk.sɪk//ˈtɑk.sɪk/

Adjective

Having a chemical nature that is harmful to health or lethal if consumed or otherwise entering into the body in sufficient quantities.

“Tobacco smoke contains many toxic substances.”

Adjective

Appearing grossly unwell; characterised by serious, potentially life-threatening compromise in the respiratory, circulatory or other body systems.

“The child appeared toxic on arrival at the hospital.”

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

How it sounds

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it TAHKSIHK.

Related meanings

Synonyms deadly poisonous venomous

In a sentence

You have a toxic manager.
© tatoeba.org contributor Amastan (CC BY 2.0 FR)
You have a toxic boss.
© tatoeba.org contributor Amastan (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use TOXIC in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 89.4% of possible answers.

Open Solver with TOXIC 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: March 5, 2023 (#624).

See the full page for that puzzle: March 5, 2023 (#624).

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

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TOXIC in Connections

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

How TOXIC performs as a guess

TOXIC 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 74.4% of games, misses completely in 25.6%, and leaves about 252 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,785 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.78 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___C T in the 1st position and C in the 5th position T__I_ T in the 1st position and I in the 4th position _O__C O in the 2nd position and C in the 5th position TO_IC T in the 1st position, O in the 2nd position, I in the 4th position, and C in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe TOXIC 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.

4.10 Entropy (bits)
252 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
89.4% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How TOXIC 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.

3.78 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#10,785 Rank among openers
Opening with TOXIC left 1 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 3.78 average. It ranks #10,785 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
41
3 guesses
745
4 guesses
1,277
5 guesses
269
6 guesses
20

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
IOT

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
74%
Green tile
24%
All gray
26%

Example solver route

R O A T E
C U M I N
T O P I C
T O X I C

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches TOXIC in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

TOXIC can come back 69 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

611 answers
246 answers
209 answers
183 answers
171 answers
157 answers
86 answers
65 answers
62 answers
62 answers
58 answers
56 answers
46 answers
36 answers
36 answers
34 answers
28 answers
27 answers
19 answers
16 answers
14 answers
9 answers
9 answers
9 answers
9 answers
8 answers
8 answers
7 answers
7 answers
6 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

T1O1X8I1C3
Total: 14 points

Words With Friends

Total: 15 points

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

Try next

SERAL RINSE SALET ARSON CARLE DROLE

Strategy after playing TOXIC

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing TOXIC:

26% chance
Suggested:
SERAL
10% chance
Suggested:
RINSE
9% chance
Suggested:
SALET

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

25.6% →
SERAL 6.15 bits
10.3% →
RINSE 5.31 bits
8.8% →
SALET 5.73 bits
7.7% →
ARSON 5.26 bits
7.2% →
CARLE 5.62 bits
6.6% →
DROLE 4.64 bits
3.6% →
SHIRT 4.37 bits
2.7% →
STRAE 4.22 bits
2.6% →
PLANE 4.75 bits
2.6% →
RANSE 4.76 bits

Research on TOXIC

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

Optimal play

Opening with TOXIC, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.81 guesses and ranks #10,967 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 #4,873 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.78, at or below the proven-optimal 3.81, 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
TOXIC sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 17 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: 47 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.

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).