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

UPSET

Yes, UPSET was the Wordle answer on July 29, 2022 (Wordle #405).

As an opener, it rules out about 93.3% of possible answers.

Open Solver with UPSET Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ʌpˈsɛt//ɐpˈset//ˈʌp.sɛt/

Adjective

Angry, distressed, or unhappy

“He was upset when she refused his friendship.”

Adjective

Feeling unwell, nauseated, or ready to vomit.

“His stomach was upset, so he didn't want to move.”

Noun

Disturbance or disruption.

“My late arrival caused the professor considerable upset.”

Noun

An unexpected victory of a competitor or candidate that was not favored to win.

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: July 29, 2022 (#405).

See the full page for that puzzle: July 29, 2022 (#405).

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

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How UPSET performs as a guess

UPSET 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 82.1% of games, misses completely in 17.9%, and leaves about 159 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,075 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.64 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___T U in the 1st position and T in the 5th position U__E_ U in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _P__T P in the 2nd position and T in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe UPSET 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.

4.91 Entropy (bits)
159 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
93.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 78% of evaluated openers
1.04 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How UPSET 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.

3.64 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#3,075 Rank among openers
Opening with UPSET 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 3.64 average. It ranks #3,075 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
73
3 guesses
912
4 guesses
1,172
5 guesses
180
6 guesses
15
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:
ESTU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
29%
All gray
18%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L E E T
U N S E T
U P S E T

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches UPSET in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

UPSET can come back 108 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

424 answers
302 answers
158 answers
124 answers
120 answers
115 answers
83 answers
69 answers
65 answers
51 answers
47 answers
46 answers
41 answers
39 answers
39 answers
38 answers
37 answers
34 answers
29 answers
28 answers
27 answers
25 answers
23 answers
23 answers
22 answers
19 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

U1P3S1E1T1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Try next

CAROL LEARE RAINY CLARY TITAN SORAL

Strategy after playing UPSET

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing UPSET:

18% chance
Suggested:
CAROL
13% chance
Suggested:
LEARE
7% chance
Suggested:
RAINY

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.9% →
CAROL 6.04 bits
12.7% →
LEARE 5.41 bits
6.7% →
RAINY 4.28 bits
5.2% →
CLARY 4.84 bits
5.1% →
TITAN 4.99 bits
4.8% →
CLARY 5.01 bits
3.5% →
SORAL 4.47 bits
2.9% →
TIARE 4.76 bits
2.7% →
ROANY 4.80 bits
2.1% →
GOIER 4.08 bits

Research on UPSET

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

Optimal play

Opening with UPSET, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #2,343 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 UPSET can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, at or below the proven-optimal 3.66, 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 second syllable Say it UHPSEHT.

Rhymes with SWEAT RESET CADET BESET UNMET

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, UPSET is a kind of agitation or disturbance.

Synonyms broken trouble worried confused disorder disturbed

Opposites well expected organized

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
UPSET sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 41 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A2); among the first words English learners study.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 57 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with internal bodily sensation (3.9 of 5).

In a sentence

I was upset about that.
© tatoeba.org contributor Amastan (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Are you upset with me?
© tatoeba.org contributor Aghanim (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).