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

WINCE

Yes, WINCE was the Wordle answer on January 22, 2022 (Wordle #217).

As an opener, it rules out about 92.7% of possible answers.

Open Solver with WINCE Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /wɪns/

Noun

A sudden movement or gesture of shrinking away.

Noun

A reel used in dyeing, steeping, or washing cloth; a winch. It is placed over the division wall between two wince pits so as to allow the cloth to descend into either compartment at will.

Verb

To flinch as if in pain or distress.

Verb

To wash (cloth), dip it in dye, etc., with the use of a wince.

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: January 22, 2022 (#217).

See the full page for that puzzle: January 22, 2022 (#217).

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

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How WINCE performs as a guess

WINCE 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 81.0% of games, misses completely in 19.0%, and leaves about 174 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #4,237 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.66 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___E W in the 1st position and E in the 5th position W__C_ W in the 1st position and C in the 4th position _I__E I in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe WINCE 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.

4.76 Entropy (bits)
174 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
92.7% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 69% of evaluated openers
1.19 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How WINCE 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.

3.66 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#4,237 Rank among openers
Opening with WINCE 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 3.66 average. It ranks #4,237 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
57
3 guesses
918
4 guesses
1,161
5 guesses
201
6 guesses
14
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:
EIN

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
81%
Green tile
36%
All gray
19%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I N G
M I N C E
W I N C E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches WINCE in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

WINCE can come back 95 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

451 answers
294 answers
212 answers
135 answers
106 answers
96 answers
81 answers
76 answers
74 answers
52 answers
51 answers
50 answers
44 answers
42 answers
36 answers
32 answers
31 answers
29 answers
26 answers
26 answers
22 answers
19 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

W4I1N1C3E1
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Try next

SOLAR SLART ROAST SORAL SALTY SLANT

Strategy after playing WINCE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing WINCE:

19% chance
Suggested:
SOLAR
12% chance
Suggested:
SOLAR
9% chance
Suggested:
SLART

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

19.0% →
SOLAR 5.95 bits
12.4% →
SOLAR 5.27 bits
8.9% →
SLART 5.26 bits
5.7% →
SLART 5.35 bits
4.5% →
ROAST 5.32 bits
4.0% →
SORAL 5.33 bits
3.4% →
SALTY 4.51 bits
3.2% →
SLANT 4.62 bits
3.1% →
EATEN 4.39 bits
2.2% →
COAST 4.31 bits

Research on WINCE

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

Optimal play

Opening with WINCE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #4,371 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 WINCE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.66, at or below the proven-optimal 3.69, 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

One syllable Say it WIHNS.

Rhymes with SINCE RINSE MINCE

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, WINCE is a kind of motion or start.

Synonyms shrink funk cringe recoil QUAIL

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
WINCE 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).