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

WAVER

Yes, WAVER was the Wordle answer on May 14, 2026 (Wordle #1790).

As an opener, it rules out about 92.5% of possible answers.

Open Solver with WAVER Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈweɪvə//ˈweɪvəɹ/

Verb

To swing or wave, especially in the air, wind, etc.; to flutter.

“Flowers wavered in the breeze.”

Verb

To begin to weaken or show signs of weakening in resolve; to falter, to flinch, to give way.

“Despite all the terrible things that happened to her, she never wavered from her beliefs.”

Noun

An act of moving back and forth, swinging, or waving; a flutter, a tremble.

Noun

A state of beginning to weaken or showing signs of weakening in resolve; a falter.

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 14, 2026 (#1790).

See the full page for that puzzle: May 14, 2026 (#1790).

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

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How WAVER performs as a guess

WAVER 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 81.1% of games, misses completely in 18.9%, and leaves about 178 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,666 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.

W___R W in the 1st position and R in the 5th position W__E_ W in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _A__R A in the 2nd position and R in the 5th position WA_ER W in the 1st position, A in the 2nd position, E in the 4th position, and R in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe WAVER 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.

4.60 Entropy (bits)
178 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
92.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 59% of evaluated openers
1.35 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How WAVER 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
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#10,666 Rank among openers
Opening with WAVER left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.73 means those games clustered within about 0.73 of a guess of the 3.78 average. It ranks #10,666 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
58
3 guesses
745
4 guesses
1,230
5 guesses
302
6 guesses
17
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:
AER

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
81%
Green tile
30%
All gray
19%

Example solver route

R O A T E
G L E A M
P A N S Y
W A F E R
W A V E R

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches WAVER in 5 guesses. See the trap-family guide for similar endgames.

Feedback distribution

WAVER can come back 90 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

449 answers
259 answers
191 answers
176 answers
141 answers
131 answers
120 answers
98 answers
79 answers
76 answers
67 answers
39 answers
35 answers
33 answers
26 answers
22 answers
20 answers
20 answers
20 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

W4A1V4E1R1
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Try next

SOILY SEINE SLANT COURT SONLY TOISE

Strategy after playing WAVER

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing WAVER:

19% chance
Suggested:
SOILY
11% chance
Suggested:
SEINE
8% chance
Suggested:
SLANT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

18.9% →
SOILY 5.69 bits
10.9% →
SEINE 5.41 bits
8.0% →
SLANT 5.41 bits
7.4% →
COURT 5.20 bits
5.9% →
SLANT 4.99 bits
5.5% →
SONLY 4.48 bits
5.1% →
TOISE 4.45 bits
4.1% →
COAST 4.43 bits
3.3% →
SOILY 3.56 bits
3.2% →
SIENT 4.43 bits

Research on WAVER

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

Optimal play

Opening with WAVER, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.75 guesses and ranks #8,370 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 WAVER can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.78; proven optimal play reaches 3.75. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.

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 WAYVUR.

Rhymes with FAVOR SAVER SAVOR LAVER RAVER

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, WAVER is a kind of actor or pause.

Synonyms hesitate hesitation WEAVE waffle flicker flutter

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
WAVER 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.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.3 of 5).

In a sentence

We will also not waver in our values and our principles as a nation.
© tatoeba.org contributor Cangarejo (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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).