Opener Lab

CARLE vs TALER

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 3.51 for TALER.

One thing TALER does better is damage control. Its worst feedback pattern leaves 204 possible answers, while CARLE can be left staring at 258.

MetricCARLETALER
Elimination96.7%97.1%
Information5.76 bits5.77 bits
Avg remaining77 words69 words
Avg turns3.463.51
Missed in six00
Win rate100.0%100.0%
TierAA

What to expect from the first guess

OutcomeCARLETALER
First-turn solve* 0% 0%
At least one green 43.9% 34.8%
Any green or yellow 89.1% 91.3%
Whole row gray 10.9% 8.7%
Worst case answers left 258 204

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

A fully gray row is rarer with TALER: it happens 8.7% of the time, against 10.9% for CARLE.

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 TALER share 4 of their 5 letters (A, E, L, 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, CARLE then TALER earns 7.20 bits of information in total, 1.42 bits more than the better word manages alone.

Past Wordle answers

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