5 FiveLetterWords
Very unlikely Accepted guess C tier for first-turn info

ALARY

ALARY is an accepted guess. Its modelled answer likelihood is very unlikely; no globally completed appearance is recorded here.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈeɪ.lə.ɹi/

Adjective

Pertaining to wings.

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

Etymology

From Latin alarius, from ala (“wing”).

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

Related meanings by dictionary sense

adjective

having or resembling wings

Open English WordNet, 2025 edition, CC BY 4.0. Source dictionary. Senses are kept separate; no puzzle appearance is assigned to a meaning without evidence.

Use ALARY in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 92.0% of possible answers.

Open Solver with ALARY Open Word Finder

Wordle status

Answer chance: very unlikely. Roughly 0.05% within a year (about 1 in 2,113), under the model through 2026-11-05. This is an estimate, not a publisher forecast. How this is calculated.

Playable guess

Yes

Included in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.

Earlier benchmark pool

No

Membership in the preserved uniform benchmark; it is not a future eligibility rule.

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 ALARY performs as a guess

Wordle accepts ALARY as a guess. It is outside this preserved uniform benchmark’s answer pool; that is not a claim about future eligibility.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 80.8% of games, misses completely in 19.2%, and leaves about 191 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,133 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.74 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.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

A___Y A in the 1st position and Y in the 5th position A__R_ A in the 1st position and R in the 4th position _L__Y L in the 2nd position and Y in the 5th position

Explore lists that match the beginning, ending or letters in ALARY.

First-turn measures

All four describe ALARY 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.

4.59 Entropy (bits)
191 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.0% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ALARY 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.

3.74 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.74 Spread of game lengths
#9,133 Rank among openers
Opening with ALARY left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.74 means those games clustered within about 0.74 of a guess of the 3.74 average. It ranks #9,133 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
61
3 guesses
813
4 guesses
1,173
5 guesses
280
6 guesses
25

Composition

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ALR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
81%
Green tile
41%
All gray
19%

When ALARY is useful later

ALARY tied for the smallest expected survivor count in 1 of 55 sampled positions where it was legal. This designed sample is not a measure of how often real players should use it.

After ADIEU: 4 candidates, normal mode

ADIEU: 02000 (0 = grey, 1 = yellow, 2 = green).

Remaining answers: ODDLY, ODOOM, ODORS, ODYLS.

With a budget of 5 more guesses, ALARY is an information probe, outside this survivor list. It leaves 1.00 candidates on average under the model. Every feedback identifies a single candidate; another turn may be needed to submit it.

Try this position in the Solver
Sample and method

Every saved board is reachable within a six-turn game. Remaining turns equal six minus the saved history length. The sampling policy is independent of the expected-survivor metric. Two states at each of three depths per opener were selected by a fixed hash from an independent candidate-only sampling policy. Every accepted guess was evaluated. Model answer-model-2026-11-05-9183a914c959, data through 2026-11-05. The score measures expected survivors, not proved solve length or human difficulty.

How this is calculated.

How the solver finds ALARY

The strategy receives only earlier guesses and their feedback. It does not know the answer before choosing a move. Guessing the answer itself on turn one is a lucky one-turn result, not a recommended general strategy.

Normal mode

Our solver: bounded weighted policy. Current-pool replay over 14,855 accepted words. Model through 2026-11-05.

  1. The fixed opener tests its five letters.

    14,855 before → 287 after. This feedback leaves 287 candidates.

    All 287 surviving candidates

    ABHOR, ABORD, ABORN, ABURA, ABURN, ACARA, ACARI, ACCRA, ACHAR, ACORN, ADDRA, ADORB, ADORN, AFARA, AGGRI, AGGRO, AGGRY, AGORA, AHURU, AKARA, ALARM, ALARY, ALGOR, ALURK, ALVAR, AMARI, AMARO, AMBRY, AMOUR, ANDRO, ANGRY, ANURA, APGAR, APPRO, ARABA, ARBAH, ARBOR, ARCHI, ARDOR, ARDRI, ARGAL, ARGAN, ARGIL, ARGOL, ARGON, ARIKI, ARMIL, ARMOR, AROBA, AROHA, AROID, AROMA, ARVAL, AUGUR, AWARD, AWARI, AWARN, AWMRY, AWORK, AZURN, AZURY, BOARD, BOLAR, BOYAR, BRAAI, BRACH, BRACK, BRAID, BRAIL, BRAIN, BRAKY, BRAND, BRANK, BRAVA, BRAVI, BRAVO, BRAWL, BRAWN, BRAXY, BRAZA, BRIAR, BROAD, BRUJA, CHAIR, CHARA, CHARD, CHARK, CHARM, CHARR, CHARY, CIGAR, CIMAR, CLAIR, CLARO, CLARY, COARB, COBRA, COPRA, CRAAL, CRACK, CRAIC, CRAIG, CRAMP, CRANK, CRAPY, CRAWL, CRAZY, CROAK, CRURA, CYMAR, DIARY, DINAR, DOBRA, DOUAR, DOURA, DOWAR, DRACK, DRACO, DRAFF, DRAIL, DRAIN, DRAMA, DRANK, DRAPY, DRAWL, DRAWN, DRYAD, DWARF, FILAR, FLAIR, FLARY, FLORA, FNARR, FRACK, FRAIL, FRAIM, FRANC, FRANK, FRAUD, FRIAR, FUBAR, GLAIR, GLARY, GLAUR, GNARL, GNARR, GOARY, GOBAR, GOURA, GRAAL, GRAFF, GRAIL, GRAIN, GRAIP, GRAMA, GRAMP, GRANA, GRAND, GRANO, GRAPH, GRAPY, GRAVY, GROAN, GROMA, GUARD, GULAR, HIJRA, HILAR, HOARD, HOARY, HYDRA, IMARI, IMBAR, INARM, INFRA, INVAR, IXORA, IZARD, JOWAR, JUMAR, KNARL, KNAUR, KOKRA, KOURA, KRAAL, KRANG, KRANZ, KRONA, LIARD, LIBRA, LIDAR, LOBAR, LUBRA, LUNAR, LYARD, LYCRA, MBARI, MBIRA, MICRA, MIKRA, MINAR, MOGAR, MOGRA, MOHAR, MOIRA, MOLAR, MOWRA, MUDAR, MUDRA, MYLAR, ORACH, ORACY, ORANG, ORGAN, ORGIA, ORIXA, ORVAL, OVARY, OWARI, PHARM, PICRA, PILAR, PLAUR, POLAR, PRAAM, PRAHU, PRANA, PRANG, PRANK, PRAWN, PRIAL, PRIAN, PRIMA, PROAL, PRORA, PRYAN, QUAIR, QUARK, QUARL, RHABD, RIKKA, RIKWA, RIOJA, RIVAL, RIYAL, ROACH, ROADY, ROAKY, ROANY, ROARY, ROGAN, ROHAN, ROJAK, ROLAG, ROMAL, ROMAN, ROWAN, ROYAL, RUACH, RUANA, RUBAI, RUBAN, RUGAL, RUMAL, RUMBA, RUPIA, ULNAR, UMBRA, UNARM, UNARY, UNBAR, URALI, URARI, URBAN, URBIA, URIAL, URMAN, URNAL, URUPA, VICAR, VOLAR, VRAIC, WHARF, WHAUR, WRACK, WRANG, WRAWL

    Decision measures before feedback

    Expected remaining candidates: 414.45. Information: 5.74 bits. These measures describe the decision before its realised feedback.

  2. Test CRAAL against the 287 candidates consistent with the earlier rows.

    287 before → 2 after. This feedback leaves 2 candidates.

    All 2 surviving candidates

    ALARM, ALARY

    Decision measures before feedback

    Expected remaining candidates: 15.757. Information: 3.931 bits. These measures describe the decision before its realised feedback.

  3. Test ALARM against the 2 candidates consistent with the earlier rows.

    2 before → 1 after. This feedback leaves 1 candidate.

    All 1 surviving candidates

    ALARY

    Decision measures before feedback

    Expected remaining candidates: 1.0. Information: 0.688 bits. These measures describe the decision before its realised feedback.

  4. Submit the only remaining candidate.

    1 before → 1 after. The answer is submitted and solved.

    All 1 surviving candidates

    ALARY

    Decision measures before feedback

    Expected remaining candidates: 1.0. Information: 0.0 bits. These measures describe the decision before its realised feedback.

Solved in 4 guesses. Uniquely identified on turn 3.

Continue this board in the Solver

Hard Mode

Our solver: bounded weighted policy. Current-pool replay over 14,855 accepted words. Model through 2026-11-05.

  1. The fixed opener tests its five letters.

    14,855 before → 287 after. This feedback leaves 287 candidates.

    All 287 surviving candidates

    ABHOR, ABORD, ABORN, ABURA, ABURN, ACARA, ACARI, ACCRA, ACHAR, ACORN, ADDRA, ADORB, ADORN, AFARA, AGGRI, AGGRO, AGGRY, AGORA, AHURU, AKARA, ALARM, ALARY, ALGOR, ALURK, ALVAR, AMARI, AMARO, AMBRY, AMOUR, ANDRO, ANGRY, ANURA, APGAR, APPRO, ARABA, ARBAH, ARBOR, ARCHI, ARDOR, ARDRI, ARGAL, ARGAN, ARGIL, ARGOL, ARGON, ARIKI, ARMIL, ARMOR, AROBA, AROHA, AROID, AROMA, ARVAL, AUGUR, AWARD, AWARI, AWARN, AWMRY, AWORK, AZURN, AZURY, BOARD, BOLAR, BOYAR, BRAAI, BRACH, BRACK, BRAID, BRAIL, BRAIN, BRAKY, BRAND, BRANK, BRAVA, BRAVI, BRAVO, BRAWL, BRAWN, BRAXY, BRAZA, BRIAR, BROAD, BRUJA, CHAIR, CHARA, CHARD, CHARK, CHARM, CHARR, CHARY, CIGAR, CIMAR, CLAIR, CLARO, CLARY, COARB, COBRA, COPRA, CRAAL, CRACK, CRAIC, CRAIG, CRAMP, CRANK, CRAPY, CRAWL, CRAZY, CROAK, CRURA, CYMAR, DIARY, DINAR, DOBRA, DOUAR, DOURA, DOWAR, DRACK, DRACO, DRAFF, DRAIL, DRAIN, DRAMA, DRANK, DRAPY, DRAWL, DRAWN, DRYAD, DWARF, FILAR, FLAIR, FLARY, FLORA, FNARR, FRACK, FRAIL, FRAIM, FRANC, FRANK, FRAUD, FRIAR, FUBAR, GLAIR, GLARY, GLAUR, GNARL, GNARR, GOARY, GOBAR, GOURA, GRAAL, GRAFF, GRAIL, GRAIN, GRAIP, GRAMA, GRAMP, GRANA, GRAND, GRANO, GRAPH, GRAPY, GRAVY, GROAN, GROMA, GUARD, GULAR, HIJRA, HILAR, HOARD, HOARY, HYDRA, IMARI, IMBAR, INARM, INFRA, INVAR, IXORA, IZARD, JOWAR, JUMAR, KNARL, KNAUR, KOKRA, KOURA, KRAAL, KRANG, KRANZ, KRONA, LIARD, LIBRA, LIDAR, LOBAR, LUBRA, LUNAR, LYARD, LYCRA, MBARI, MBIRA, MICRA, MIKRA, MINAR, MOGAR, MOGRA, MOHAR, MOIRA, MOLAR, MOWRA, MUDAR, MUDRA, MYLAR, ORACH, ORACY, ORANG, ORGAN, ORGIA, ORIXA, ORVAL, OVARY, OWARI, PHARM, PICRA, PILAR, PLAUR, POLAR, PRAAM, PRAHU, PRANA, PRANG, PRANK, PRAWN, PRIAL, PRIAN, PRIMA, PROAL, PRORA, PRYAN, QUAIR, QUARK, QUARL, RHABD, RIKKA, RIKWA, RIOJA, RIVAL, RIYAL, ROACH, ROADY, ROAKY, ROANY, ROARY, ROGAN, ROHAN, ROJAK, ROLAG, ROMAL, ROMAN, ROWAN, ROYAL, RUACH, RUANA, RUBAI, RUBAN, RUGAL, RUMAL, RUMBA, RUPIA, ULNAR, UMBRA, UNARM, UNARY, UNBAR, URALI, URARI, URBAN, URBIA, URIAL, URMAN, URNAL, URUPA, VICAR, VOLAR, VRAIC, WHARF, WHAUR, WRACK, WRANG, WRAWL

    Decision measures before feedback

    Expected remaining candidates: 414.45. Information: 5.74 bits. These measures describe the decision before its realised feedback.

  2. Test CRAAL against the 287 candidates consistent with the earlier rows.

    287 before → 2 after. This feedback leaves 2 candidates.

    All 2 surviving candidates

    ALARM, ALARY

    Decision measures before feedback

    Expected remaining candidates: 15.757. Information: 3.931 bits. These measures describe the decision before its realised feedback.

  3. Test ALARM against the 2 candidates consistent with the earlier rows.

    2 before → 1 after. This feedback leaves 1 candidate.

    All 1 surviving candidates

    ALARY

    Decision measures before feedback

    Expected remaining candidates: 1.0. Information: 0.688 bits. These measures describe the decision before its realised feedback.

  4. Submit the only remaining candidate.

    1 before → 1 after. The answer is submitted and solved.

    All 1 surviving candidates

    ALARY

    Decision measures before feedback

    Expected remaining candidates: 1.0. Information: 0.0 bits. These measures describe the decision before its realised feedback.

Solved in 4 guesses. Uniquely identified on turn 3.

Continue this board in the Solver

How the fixed opener panel performs on this answer

OpenerFirst feedbackSurvivorsNormalHard Mode
TARSE01100 (0 grey, 1 yellow, 2 green)28744
CRANE01200 (0 grey, 1 yellow, 2 green)10644
SLATE02200 (0 grey, 1 yellow, 2 green)6655
ADIEU20000 (0 grey, 1 yellow, 2 green)25755
STARE00220 (0 grey, 1 yellow, 2 green)5144
AUDIO20000 (0 grey, 1 yellow, 2 green)32455
RAISE11000 (0 grey, 1 yellow, 2 green)35055
ROATE10200 (0 grey, 1 yellow, 2 green)21055
SALET01100 (0 grey, 1 yellow, 2 green)29144
Normal mode
1 guess: 0 · 2 guesses: 0 · 3 guesses: 0 · 4 guesses: 4 · 5 guesses: 5 · 6 guesses: 0 · Failed in six: 0
Hard Mode
1 guess: 0 · 2 guesses: 0 · 3 guesses: 0 · 4 guesses: 4 · 5 guesses: 5 · 6 guesses: 0 · Failed in six: 0

The nine openers use the same pool and continuation policy. Across both modes: 4–5 guesses among successes; 0 of 18 configurations failed. This is performance on this answer, not an overall opener ranking.

29 openers set up a two-turn opportunity; examples include ALARM, ARRAY, PLAYA, YARRA, ALLAY, ALWAY, YATRA, SATAY, MALAR, GAMAY. After their feedback, this answer is among the most likely survivors with at least half the model probability. This is an opportunity, not a guarantee. An opener that immediately solves is excluded.

Why this answer can be difficult

The answer contains 2 copies of A. Feedback allocates exact matches before misplaced copies; a grey duplicate does not erase another coloured copy.

The worked board still allows 2 different answers at one later decision: ALARM, ALARY. These are mechanical alternatives, not a judgement of vocabulary difficulty.

Vocabulary evidence and voluntary player results are reported separately from these solver observations.

Closest competing answers in this board

These words all fit the earlier feedback, rather than merely sharing similar spelling: ALARM, ALARY.

A lesson from this route

Before ALARM, 2 words still fit. Its feedback left 1; check the full survivor list before choosing the next answer.

Try another opener or a different move

How this is calculated

The current policy checks all remaining candidates and up to 128 fixed probes. At six or fewer candidates it uses bounded lookahead, preferring modelled six-turn success, then speed among successes. Larger states use expected survivors as a heuristic. These are recommendations, not proofs of optimal play. Hard Mode retains green positions and revealed letter counts; it allows grey letters and a yellow in the same position. Candidate-only play is stricter.

Methods and limitations

Feedback distribution

ALARY can come back 94 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

459 answers
362 answers
148 answers
143 answers
138 answers
96 answers
96 answers
87 answers
77 answers
62 answers
50 answers
49 answers
47 answers
42 answers
41 answers
35 answers
29 answers
28 answers
28 answers
25 answers
19 answers
18 answers
16 answers
16 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

A1L1A1R1Y4
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Try next

TOISE POISE CONTE SOUCE CATER SHITE

Strategy after playing ALARY

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ALARY:

19% chance
Suggested:
TOISE
15% chance
Suggested:
TOISE
6% chance
Suggested:
TOISE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

19.2% →
TOISE 6.19 bits
15.1% →
TOISE 5.53 bits
6.2% →
TOISE 5.14 bits
6.0% →
POISE 4.60 bits
5.8% →
CONTE 5.25 bits
4.0% →
SOUCE 4.75 bits
4.0% →
CATER 4.50 bits
3.6% →
SHITE 4.97 bits
3.2% →
VALET 4.41 bits
2.6% →
CADET 3.77 bits

Research on ALARY

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

Optimal play

Opening with ALARY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.77 guesses and ranks #9,270 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.93 guesses at best and is rank #4,843 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.74, at or below the proven-optimal 3.77, 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
ALARY sits in the rare band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words in the source corpus. Corpus frequency does not measure every reader’s familiarity.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).