Opener Lab

BULLY vs CARLE

See which word leaves you with the easier game.

CARLE leads in the previous complete six-turn benchmark

These game-length figures come from the previous complete opener benchmark against its 2,354-answer snapshot, ranked by average guesses among games solved within six. Its answer snapshot and continuation policy are separate from today's solver recommendations.

The same solver played from both openers. CARLE has the lower average in games solved within six: 3.56 guesses to 3.85 for BULLY.

Looking only at the opening row, CARLE has higher entropy (5.76 bits versus 3.56). That describes first-guess separation, not the full solve on its own.

MetricBULLYCARLE
Elimination79.9%96.7%
Information3.56 bits5.76 bits
Avg remaining474 words77 words
Avg turns3.853.56
Win rate99.9%99.9%
TierFA

What to expect from the first guess

OutcomeBULLYCARLE
First-turn solve* 0.04% 0%
At least one green 33.5% 43.9%
Any green or yellow 58.6% 89.1%
Whole row gray 41.4% 10.9%
Worst case answers left 976 258

*Treating every word in the possible-answer list as equally likely.

A fully gray row is rarer with CARLE: it happens 10.9% of the time, against 41.4% for BULLY.

CARLE is not on the possible-answer list, so it cannot solve the game on turn one here. It can still be a useful guess.

How these two openers fit together

BULLY and CARLE overlap on a single letter (L), so the pair tests 8 different letters between them.

Played back to back, BULLY then CARLE earns 7.69 bits of information in total, 1.93 bits more than the better word manages alone.

Past Wordle answers

  • BULLY: Answer to the puzzle on August 8, 2023.
  • CARLE: Has not been a past Wordle answer in this site's history.