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

AXLES

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈæksəlz/

Noun

plural of axle

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

How it sounds

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it AKSUHLZ.

Use AXLES 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

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.

AXLES in Connections

1 recorded appearance in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.

How AXLES performs as a guess

Wordle accepts AXLES 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 85.2% of games, misses completely in 14.8%, and leaves about 151 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,319 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.77 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 AXLES 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.

4.62 Entropy (bits)
151 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
93.7% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How AXLES 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.

3.77 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#10,319 Rank among openers
Opening with AXLES left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.77 average. It ranks #10,319 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
49
3 guesses
757
4 guesses
1,262
5 guesses
256
6 guesses
27

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AELS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
85%
Green tile
25%
All gray
15%

Feedback distribution

AXLES can come back 74 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

353 answers
242 answers
229 answers
162 answers
142 answers
121 answers
112 answers
98 answers
94 answers
91 answers
61 answers
59 answers
55 answers
48 answers
44 answers
44 answers
38 answers
35 answers
32 answers
29 answers
26 answers
21 answers
19 answers
17 answers
16 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

A1X8L1E1S1
Total: 12 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Strategy after playing AXLES

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing AXLES:

15% chance
Suggested:
COUNT
10% chance
Suggested:
TRINE
10% chance
Suggested:
CAIRN

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

14.8% →
COUNT 5.80 bits
10.2% →
TRINE 5.38 bits
9.6% →
CAIRN 5.16 bits
6.8% →
SNORT 5.10 bits
6.0% →
TONER 4.40 bits
5.1% →
COULD 4.80 bits
4.7% →
CRATE 4.93 bits
4.1% →
RONTE 4.67 bits
3.9% →
SCANT 4.56 bits
3.8% →
CAROL 4.05 bits

Research on AXLES

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

Optimal play

Opening with AXLES, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.77 guesses and ranks #9,081 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 AXLES can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.77, 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
AXLES sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.1 of 5).

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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).