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

CHELA

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

As an opener, it rules out about 94.0% of possible answers.

Open Solver with CHELA Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈkilə//ˈkiːlə//ˈt͡ʃeɪ.lə/

Noun

A pincer-like claw of a crustacean or arachnid.

Noun

A pupil or disciple, especially in Hinduism.

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 CHELA performs as a guess

Wordle accepts CHELA 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 86.6% of games, misses completely in 13.4%, and leaves about 143 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,563 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.65 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.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

C___A C in the 1st position and A in the 5th position C__L_ C in the 1st position and L in the 4th position _H__A H in the 2nd position and A in the 5th position

Explore lists that match the beginning, ending or letters in CHELA.

First-turn measures

All four describe CHELA 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.

5.04 Entropy (bits)
143 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
94.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 85% of evaluated openers
0.91 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How CHELA 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.

3.65 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#3,563 Rank among openers
Opening with CHELA left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.73 means those games clustered within about 0.73 of a guess of the 3.65 average. It ranks #3,563 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
78
3 guesses
934
4 guesses
1,103
5 guesses
216
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)
87%
Green tile
26%
All gray
13%

Feedback distribution

CHELA can come back 115 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

336 answers
317 answers
222 answers
145 answers
99 answers
89 answers
88 answers
70 answers
63 answers
57 answers
53 answers
45 answers
36 answers
36 answers
34 answers
31 answers
29 answers
29 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
24 answers
23 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

C3H4E1L1A1
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Try next

RIONE SNORT TRAIN TARSE TONAL GOIER

Strategy after playing CHELA

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing CHELA:

14% chance
Suggested:
RIONE
13% chance
Suggested:
SNORT
9% chance
Suggested:
TRAIN

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

14.2% →
RIONE 5.31 bits
13.4% →
SNORT 5.89 bits
9.4% →
TRAIN 5.39 bits
6.1% →
TARSE 4.67 bits
4.2% →
TONAL 4.50 bits
3.7% →
GOIER 4.26 bits
3.7% →
SPOIL 4.62 bits
2.9% →
GEARE 3.91 bits
2.7% →
MIRTH 4.45 bits
2.4% →
SETER 4.76 bits

Research on CHELA

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

Optimal play

Opening with CHELA, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #3,983 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 CHELA can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, at or below the proven-optimal 3.69, 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 CHEHLUH. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, CHELA is a kind of hindu or member.

Synonyms claw

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
CHELA sits in the rare band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word few players will have met in print.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model; Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).