ALLEN
ALLEN is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈæ.lən/
- Proper noun
-
An English and Scottish surname transferred from the given name derived from the given name Alan.
- Proper noun
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A male given name from the Celtic languages, a variant of Alan; in modern use often transferred from the surname.
- Noun
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Ellipsis of Allen wrench.
Alternative forms: Alan, Allan, Alen
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
How it sounds
Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it ALUHN.
In a sentence
You'll need an Allen key to open it.
Is that the right Allen wrench?
Use ALLEN in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 93.7% of possible answers.
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
No completed appearanceNo 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.
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See what the public sample says →ALLEN in Connections
1 recorded appearance in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.
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· Puzzle #173
Reveal this appearance's category
ALLEN appeared in KINDS OF WRENCHES (purple group).
How ALLEN performs as a guess
Wordle accepts ALLEN 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 84.3% of games, misses completely in 15.7%, and leaves about 151 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,485 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.71 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 ALLEN 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 ALLEN 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
ALLEN can come back 100 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 ALLEN; 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 ALLEN
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to ALLEN.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing ALLEN:
Research on ALLEN
Game-tree analysis and word research for ALLEN, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with ALLEN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.72 guesses and ranks #5,921 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 ALLEN can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.71, at or below the proven-optimal 3.72, 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
- ALLEN sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 24 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
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).