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

CAVEL

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

As an opener, it rules out about 93.7% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

Alternative form of kevel (“stonemason's hammer”).

Noun

A gag.

Alternative forms: cavil, kevel, kevil

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 CAVEL performs as a guess

Wordle accepts CAVEL 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 83.1% of games, misses completely in 16.9%, and leaves about 149 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,583 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.70 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 CAVEL 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.

4.93 Entropy (bits)
149 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
93.7% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 80% of evaluated openers
1.01 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How CAVEL 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.

3.70 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#6,583 Rank among openers
Opening with CAVEL 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 3.70 average. It ranks #6,583 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
67
3 guesses
841
4 guesses
1,205
5 guesses
217
6 guesses
21
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:
AEL

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
83%
Green tile
36%
All gray
17%

Feedback distribution

CAVEL can come back 107 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

402 answers
257 answers
165 answers
147 answers
126 answers
120 answers
113 answers
74 answers
74 answers
62 answers
51 answers
45 answers
41 answers
36 answers
29 answers
29 answers
29 answers
28 answers
26 answers
26 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
21 answers
21 answers
19 answers
17 answers
17 answers
15 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

C3A1V4E1L1
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Strategy after playing CAVEL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing CAVEL:

17% chance
Suggested:
SNORT
11% chance
Suggested:
STIRE
7% chance
Suggested:
TRAIN

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

16.9%
SNORT 5.95 bits
10.8%
STIRE 5.42 bits
7.0%
TRAIN 5.32 bits
6.2%
SENOR 4.47 bits
5.3%
SOILY 4.75 bits
5.1%
STARE 4.84 bits
4.8%
RAINY 4.10 bits
3.1%
TOILE 4.39 bits
3.1%
TOUCH 4.75 bits
2.6%
PLANT 4.33 bits

Research on CAVEL

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

Optimal play

Opening with CAVEL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #3,940 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 CAVEL can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.70; proven optimal play reaches 3.69. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.

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 KAVUHL. 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.