AHOLD
AHOLD is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.
As an opener, it rules out about 93.3% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /əˈhoʊld/
- Noun
-
A hold, grip, grasp.
- Adverb
-
Brought to lie as near to the windward as it can to get out to sea, and thereby held steady.
Alternative forms: a-hold
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Wordle status
A word can be a playable guess without being a possible answer.
Playable guess
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
NoThe solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.
Past Wordle answer
Not used yetNo past answer date found.
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →How AHOLD performs as a guess
Wordle accepts AHOLD 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 82.9% of games, misses completely in 17.1%, and leaves about 159 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,033 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.62 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe AHOLD 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How AHOLD 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Feedback distribution
AHOLD can come back 105 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for AHOLD; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing AHOLD
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to AHOLD.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing AHOLD:
Research on AHOLD
Game-tree analysis and word research for AHOLD, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with AHOLD, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #2,285 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 AHOLD can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.62, at or below the proven-optimal 3.66, 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.
How it sounds
Two syllables, stress on the second syllable Say it UHHOHLD.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- AHOLD sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
In a sentence
You have to get ahold of yourself.
Please get ahold of yourself.
Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).