Opener Lab

CARLE vs NAMER

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 3.63 for NAMER.

Looking only at the opening row, CARLE has higher entropy (5.76 bits versus 5.22). That describes first-guess separation, not the full solve on its own.

MetricCARLENAMER
Elimination96.7%95.6%
Information5.76 bits5.22 bits
Avg remaining77 words105 words
Avg turns3.563.63
Win rate99.9%100.0%
TierAB

What to expect from the first guess

OutcomeCARLENAMER
First-turn solve* 0% 0%
At least one green 43.9% 29.6%
Any green or yellow 89.1% 88.0%
Whole row gray 10.9% 12.0%
Worst case answers left 258 282

*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 12.0% for NAMER.

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

CARLE and NAMER share 3 letters (A, E, R). Played as a pair they cover 7 distinct letters, which still gives the second word room to do useful work.

Played back to back, CARLE then NAMER earns 7.38 bits of information in total, 1.61 bits more than the better word manages alone.

Past Wordle answers

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