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

ZEBRA

Yes, ZEBRA was the Wordle answer on June 29, 2024 (Wordle #1106).

As an opener, it rules out about 91.5% of possible answers.

Open Solver with ZEBRA Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈzɛb.ɹə//ˈziː.bɹə//ˈziːb.rɑː/

Noun

Any of three species of subgenus Hippotigris: Equus grevyi, Equus quagga, or Equus zebra, all with black and white stripes and native to Africa.

Noun

A referee.

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: June 29, 2024 (#1106).

See the full page for that puzzle: June 29, 2024 (#1106).

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

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How ZEBRA performs as a guess

ZEBRA 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 81.5% of games, misses completely in 18.5%, and leaves about 202 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,114 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.81 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.

Z___A Z in the 1st position and A in the 5th position Z__R_ Z in the 1st position and R in the 4th position _E__A E in the 2nd position and A in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe ZEBRA 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.

4.31 Entropy (bits)
202 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
91.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 39% of evaluated openers
1.64 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ZEBRA 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.

3.81 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#12,114 Rank among openers
Opening with ZEBRA left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.81 average. It ranks #12,114 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
46
3 guesses
700
4 guesses
1,264
5 guesses
323
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)
82%
Green tile
20%
All gray
18%

Example solver route

R O A T E
G L E A M
P A N S Y
A I D E R
Z E B R A

One example route used by the solver.

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

Feedback distribution

ZEBRA can come back 78 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

439 answers
290 answers
282 answers
185 answers
153 answers
153 answers
118 answers
76 answers
75 answers
56 answers
48 answers
45 answers
40 answers
37 answers
33 answers
28 answers
24 answers
21 answers
20 answers
17 answers
17 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
9 answers
9 answers
8 answers
8 answers
8 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

Z10E1B3R1A1
Total: 16 points

Words With Friends

Total: 17 points

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

Try next

SOILY SLANT TOILE TOISE GROUT COAST

Strategy after playing ZEBRA

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ZEBRA:

18% chance
Suggested:
SOILY
12% chance
Suggested:
SLANT
12% chance
Suggested:
TOILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

18.5% →
SOILY 5.72 bits
12.2% →
SLANT 5.41 bits
11.9% →
TOILE 5.41 bits
7.8% →
TOISE 4.53 bits
6.4% →
GROUT 4.88 bits
6.4% →
SLANT 4.94 bits
5.0% →
COAST 4.31 bits
3.2% →
TARGE 3.83 bits
3.2% →
SOLDE 4.11 bits
2.4% →
SIREN 3.62 bits

Research on ZEBRA

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

Optimal play

Opening with ZEBRA, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.81 guesses and ranks #11,119 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 ZEBRA can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.81, at or below the proven-optimal 3.81, 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 ZEEBRUH.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, ZEBRA is a kind of equine.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
ZEBRA sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 3 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 5, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 97 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.0 of 5).

In a sentence

Have you ever seen a zebra?
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
I had a dream about a zebra.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (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).