Opener Lab

CARET vs CARLE

See which word leaves you with the easier game.

CARLE leads in the current bounded six-turn policy

Both words are in the current screen of 182 openers, tested against 2,358 answers. Exact misses rank first; average guesses among wins break ties.

The same solver played from both openers. CARLE has the lower average in games solved within six: 3.46 guesses to 3.48 for CARET.

MetricCARETCARLE
Elimination96.7%96.7%
Information5.77 bits5.76 bits
Avg remaining78 words77 words
Avg turns3.483.46
Missed in six00
Win rate100.0%100.0%
TierAA

What to expect from the first guess

OutcomeCARETCARLE
First-turn solve* 0% 0%
At least one green 43.5% 43.9%
Any green or yellow 89.3% 89.1%
Whole row gray 10.7% 10.9%
Worst case answers left 253 258

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

Both openers come back completely gray at almost the same rate, so the difference between them lies in how much their hits actually tell you.

Neither word is on the possible-answer list, so neither can solve the game on turn one here. Both can still be useful guesses.

How these two openers fit together

CARET and CARLE share 4 of their 5 letters (A, C, E, R), so as a pair they only cover 6 distinct letters. Treat them as alternatives rather than partners, because playing both wastes most of the second guess.

Played back to back, CARET then CARLE earns 6.94 bits of information in total, 1.17 bits more than the better word manages alone.

Past Wordle answers

  • CARET: Has not been a past Wordle answer in this site's history.
  • CARLE: Has not been a past Wordle answer in this site's history.