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

UMBRA

Yes, UMBRA was the Wordle answer on May 8, 2026 (Wordle #1784).

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

Open Solver with UMBRA Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈʌmbɹə/

Noun

The fully shaded inner region of a shadow cast by an opaque object.

Noun

The central region of a sunspot.

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: May 8, 2026 (#1784).

See the full page for that puzzle: May 8, 2026 (#1784).

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

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How UMBRA performs as a guess

UMBRA 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 78.9% of games, misses completely in 21.1%, and leaves about 237 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,929 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.72 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.

U___A U in the 1st position and A in the 5th position U__R_ U in the 1st position and R in the 4th position _M__A M in the 2nd position and A in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe UMBRA 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.

4.21 Entropy (bits)
237 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
90.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 33% of evaluated openers
1.74 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How UMBRA 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.

3.72 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#7,929 Rank among openers
Opening with UMBRA left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.72 average. It ranks #7,929 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
52
3 guesses
820
4 guesses
1,220
5 guesses
251
6 guesses
8
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

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ARU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
79%
Green tile
14%
All gray
21%

Example solver route

R O A T E
C A R R Y
U M B R A

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches UMBRA in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

UMBRA can come back 80 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

501 answers
377 answers
274 answers
182 answers
172 answers
74 answers
63 answers
55 answers
53 answers
50 answers
47 answers
44 answers
44 answers
37 answers
29 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
22 answers
21 answers
19 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
10 answers
7 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

U1M3B3R1A1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Try next

TOILE SLATE TOISE CASTE SOCLE SCOTE

Strategy after playing UMBRA

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing UMBRA:

21% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
16% chance
Suggested:
SLATE
12% chance
Suggested:
TOISE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

21.1% →
TOILE 6.06 bits
15.9% →
SLATE 5.66 bits
11.5% →
TOISE 5.24 bits
7.7% →
CASTE 4.80 bits
7.2% →
SOCLE 5.05 bits
3.1% →
SCOTE 4.82 bits
2.7% →
TOILE 5.06 bits
2.3% →
SEITY 4.57 bits
2.2% →
CLOTE 4.61 bits
2.1% →
SLICE 4.43 bits

Research on UMBRA

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

Optimal play

Opening with UMBRA, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.77 guesses and ranks #9,381 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.88 guesses at best and is rank #3,642 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.72, at or below the proven-optimal 3.77, 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

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, UMBRA is a kind of shadow.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
UMBRA sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than 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).