Possible answer Not used yet C tier for first-turn info

COLOR

COLOR is on the solver's possible-answer list but has not appeared as a Wordle answer yet.

As an opener, it rules out about 90.9% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈkʌl.ə//ˈkʌl.ə(ɹ)/[ˈkʰʌl.ə(ɹ)]

Noun

The spectral composition of visible light.

“Humans and birds can perceive color.”

Noun

A subset thereof:

“Most languages have names for the colors black, white, red, and green.”

Adjective

Conveying color, as opposed to shades of gray.

“Color television and movies were considered a great improvement over black and white.”

Verb

To give something color.

“We could color the walls red.”

Alternative forms: colour, usage notes

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

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

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 COLOR performs as a guess

COLOR is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,374 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 78.0% of games, misses completely in 22.0%, and leaves about 215 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,554 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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 COLOR 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.

4.48 Entropy (bits)
215 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
90.9% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 51% of evaluated openers
1.46 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How COLOR 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.

3.69 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#6,554 Rank among openers
Opening with COLOR left 1 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 3.69 average. It ranks #6,554 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
52
3 guesses
877
4 guesses
1,180
5 guesses
220
6 guesses
23
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

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
LOR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
78%
Green tile
34%
All gray
22%

Example solver route

R O A T E
D U C H Y
C O L O R

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches COLOR in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

COLOR can come back 90 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

523 answers
308 answers
278 answers
109 answers
102 answers
83 answers
83 answers
77 answers
65 answers
53 answers
46 answers
44 answers
37 answers
37 answers
36 answers
33 answers
33 answers
29 answers
28 answers
24 answers
21 answers
20 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
13 answers
13 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

C3O1L1O1R1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing COLOR

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing COLOR:

22% chance
Suggested:
SAINE
13% chance
Suggested:
TIARE
12% chance
Suggested:
SAINE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

22.0%
SAINE 6.26 bits
13.0%
TIARE 5.57 bits
11.7%
SAINE 5.47 bits
4.6%
NAICE 5.14 bits
4.3%
SAINT 4.25 bits
3.5%
STANE 5.25 bits
3.5%
DANSE 4.59 bits
3.2%
STANE 4.49 bits
2.7%
SABLE 4.78 bits
2.2%
TIARE 4.54 bits

Research on COLOR

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

Optimal play

Opening with COLOR, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.74 guesses and ranks #7,634 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 COLOR can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, at or below the proven-optimal 3.74, 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 KUHLUR.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, COLOR is a kind of property or interest.

Synonyms colour coloring GLOSS colouring semblance distort

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
COLOR sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 81 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A1); among the first words English learners study.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.9 of 5).

In a sentence

I don't like the color.
© tatoeba.org contributor OsoHombre (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Is this the right color?
© tatoeba.org contributor mailohilohi (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).