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

ANCLE

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

As an opener, it rules out about 95.8% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈæŋ.k(ə)l//ˈeɪ̯ŋ.k(ə)l//ˈɛ̃ŋ.k(ə)l/

Noun

Obsolete spelling of ankle.

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

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

Not used yet

No past answer date found.

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

How ANCLE performs as a guess

Wordle accepts ANCLE 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 88.0% of games, misses completely in 12.0%, and leaves about 99 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #552 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.59 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 ANCLE 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.

5.35 Entropy (bits)
99 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
95.8% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 96% of evaluated openers
0.59 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ANCLE 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.

3.59 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#552 Rank among openers
Opening with ANCLE solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.59 average. It ranks #552 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
90
3 guesses
1,001
4 guesses
1,075
5 guesses
170
6 guesses
18
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.46 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AELN

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
88%
Green tile
33%
All gray
12%

Feedback distribution

ANCLE can come back 117 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

284 answers
193 answers
166 answers
126 answers
112 answers
77 answers
77 answers
75 answers
75 answers
69 answers
64 answers
64 answers
63 answers
56 answers
56 answers
40 answers
39 answers
34 answers
34 answers
30 answers
28 answers
27 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
23 answers
21 answers
21 answers
21 answers
19 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

A1N1C3L1E1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing ANCLE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ANCLE:

12% chance
Suggested:
SHORT
8% chance
Suggested:
SETER
7% chance
Suggested:
SATYR

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.0%
SHORT 5.99 bits
8.1%
SETER 5.31 bits
7.0%
SATYR 5.10 bits
5.3%
TORSE 4.70 bits
4.7%
IRONY 4.81 bits
3.2%
SPOIL 4.84 bits
3.2%
COURT 5.02 bits
3.2%
SETER 4.14 bits
3.2%
TRAIN 4.33 bits
2.9%
ROAST 4.52 bits

Research on ANCLE

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

Optimal play

Opening with ANCLE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.61 guesses and ranks #377 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 ANCLE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.59, at or below the proven-optimal 3.61, 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 first syllable Say it ANKUHL. Estimated pronunciation

This pronunciation is machine-estimated, not taken from a pronunciation dictionary.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model.