CAROL
Yes, CAROL was the Wordle answer on September 23, 2023 (Wordle #826).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈkæɹəl//ˈkɛɹəl/
- Noun
-
A ballad or song of joy.
- Verb
-
To sing in a joyful manner.
- Verb
-
To sing carols; especially to sing Christmas carols in a group.
- Noun
-
A round dance accompanied by singing.
Alternative forms: carrol, carroll, carrel
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English carole (“round dance with singing; group of people dancing and singing in a circle; song by carollers, carol; religious poem or song; circular thing; braid, chain (?); stall for study or writing; writing table”), from Old French carole (“round dance with singing”). The further etymology is uncertain; the following possibilities have been suggested:
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it KARUHL.
In a sentence
This is my favorite carol.
Carol returned to her hotel.
Use CAROL in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 95.7% 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
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Used oncePast Wordle answer: September 23, 2023 (#826).
See the full page for that puzzle: September 23, 2023 (#826).
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 CAROL performs as a guess
CAROL is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,384 when every answer is treated as equally likely.
Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 87.8% of games, misses completely in 12.2%, and leaves about 103 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #281 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.57 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 CAROL 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 CAROL 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
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches CAROL in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
CAROL can come back 126 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 CAROL; 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 CAROL
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to CAROL.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing CAROL:
Research on CAROL
Game-tree analysis and word research for CAROL, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with CAROL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.62 guesses and ranks #501 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.73 guesses at best and is rank #166 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.57, at or below the proven-optimal 3.62, 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
- CAROL sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 10 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 62 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sound (3.5 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); Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).