Accepted guess Not a possible answer B tier for first-turn info

ACOLD

ACOLD is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.

Meaning and pronunciation

Adjective

Feeling cold.

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Etymology

From Middle English acoled (past participle of acolen (“to grow cold or cool”)), from Old English ācōlod (past participle of ācōlian (“to grow cold”)), equivalent to a- + cold.

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

Related meanings

Synonyms cold

Opposites hot

Use ACOLD in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 93.3% of possible answers.

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

No

The solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.

Past Wordle answer

No completed appearance

No appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.

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

How ACOLD performs as a guess

Wordle accepts ACOLD as a guess, but the solver does not list it as a possible answer.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 82.4% of games, misses completely in 17.6%, and leaves about 159 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,234 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.60 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.

First-turn measures

All four describe ACOLD 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.

4.85 Entropy (bits)
159 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
93.3% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ACOLD 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.

3.60 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.67 Spread of game lengths
#1,234 Rank among openers
Opening with ACOLD left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.67 means those games clustered within about 0.67 of a guess of the 3.60 average. It ranks #1,234 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
61
3 guesses
987
4 guesses
1,135
5 guesses
159
6 guesses
10

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ALO

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
26%
All gray
18%

Feedback distribution

ACOLD can come back 104 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

419 answers
290 answers
166 answers
126 answers
120 answers
114 answers
112 answers
96 answers
74 answers
61 answers
48 answers
44 answers
43 answers
39 answers
35 answers
34 answers
33 answers
32 answers
29 answers
27 answers
26 answers
21 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

A1C3O1L1D2
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing ACOLD

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ACOLD:

18% chance
Suggested:
STIRE
12% chance
Suggested:
TARSE
7% chance
Suggested:
RONTE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.6% →
STIRE 6.20 bits
12.2% →
TARSE 5.69 bits
7.0% →
RONTE 5.40 bits
5.3% →
TARSE 4.95 bits
5.0% →
SPIER 4.98 bits
4.8% →
TRICE 5.42 bits
4.7% →
STURE 4.72 bits
4.0% →
CRATE 4.97 bits
3.1% →
DEIGN 5.01 bits
2.6% →
SUITE 4.54 bits

Research on ACOLD

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

Optimal play

Opening with ACOLD, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.64 guesses and ranks #1,172 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 ACOLD can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.60, at or below the proven-optimal 3.64, 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0).