5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess C tier opener

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).

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

Wordle Observatory

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About the project

Add an anonymous result and difficulty rating to the public, aggregate research dataset.

We send only this answer word for puzzle verification, the puzzle number, result, difficulty vote, Hard Mode flag, timezone and a random one-puzzle receipt token. The Observatory stores no answer word, grid, guesses, account, email, IP-derived ID or reusable player identifier. The puzzle-specific receipt prevents duplicate submissions and permits withdrawal; anyone with that token can withdraw, so keep browser-data exports private. See the privacy details.

How WAVER performs as a guess

WAVER is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,358 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 177 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete v5 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.

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

Try next

SOILY SEINE SLANT COURT SONLY TOISE
Words starting with W Words ending with R

First-turn measures

4.60 Entropy (bits)
177 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 opener: v5 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
100.0% Win rate
0.73 Volatility
#10,666 v5 opener rank
In the complete v5 snapshot, WAVER 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 (3.45 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 E I 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

90 possible patterns. Top outcomes:

445
257
189
175
141
130
119
98
79
75
67
39
35
33
26
22
20
20
20
17
16
15
15
14
14
13
13
12
12
11

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 5.39 bits
8.0% →
SLANT 5.41 bits
7.4% →
COURT 5.20 bits
6.0% →
SLANT 4.99 bits
5.5% →
SONLY 4.47 bits
5.0% →
TOISE 4.44 bits
4.2% →
COAST 4.43 bits
3.4% →
SOILY 3.55 bits
3.2% →
SIENT 4.39 bits

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.