5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess B tier for first-turn info

DECAL

Yes, DECAL was the Wordle answer on May 5, 2024 (Wordle #1051).

As an opener, it rules out about 94.5% of possible answers.

Open Solver with DECAL Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈdiː.kæl//ˈdɛkəl//ˈdiːkæl/

Noun

A design or picture produced in order to be transferred to another surface either permanently or temporarily.

Noun

A decorative sticker.

Verb

To apply decals to.

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

Used once

Past Wordle answer: May 5, 2024 (#1051).

See the full page for that puzzle: May 5, 2024 (#1051).

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

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How DECAL performs as a guess

DECAL 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 85.8% of games, misses completely in 14.2%, and leaves about 131 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #680 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.59 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.

D___L D in the 1st position and L in the 5th position D__A_ D in the 1st position and A in the 4th position _E__L E in the 2nd position and L in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe DECAL 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.

5.10 Entropy (bits)
131 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
94.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 88% of evaluated openers
0.85 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How DECAL 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.

3.59 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#680 Rank among openers
Opening with DECAL left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.59 average. It ranks #680 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
81
3 guesses
966
4 guesses
1,148
5 guesses
145
6 guesses
11
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)
86%
Green tile
25%
All gray
14%

Example solver route

R O A T E
L A D E N
D E C A L

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches DECAL in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

DECAL can come back 119 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

337 answers
266 answers
206 answers
130 answers
106 answers
100 answers
88 answers
72 answers
72 answers
70 answers
63 answers
52 answers
52 answers
47 answers
39 answers
32 answers
30 answers
27 answers
26 answers
26 answers
24 answers
24 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
16 answers
16 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

D2E1C3A1L1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Try next

SNORT TORSE SAINT TARSE SOILY COUNT

Strategy after playing DECAL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing DECAL:

14% chance
Suggested:
SNORT
11% chance
Suggested:
TORSE
9% chance
Suggested:
SAINT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

14.2% →
SNORT 6.02 bits
11.2% →
TORSE 5.50 bits
8.7% →
SAINT 5.38 bits
5.5% →
TARSE 4.76 bits
4.5% →
SOILY 4.76 bits
4.2% →
COUNT 5.08 bits
3.7% →
TERSE 4.77 bits
3.0% →
ALLOT 4.21 bits
3.0% →
TOISE 4.57 bits
2.9% →
CHART 4.60 bits

Research on DECAL

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

Optimal play

Opening with DECAL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.64 guesses and ranks #1,278 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 DECAL can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.59, at or below the proven-optimal 3.64, 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 second syllable Say it DUHKAHL. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, DECAL is a kind of design.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
DECAL sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about once per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.2 of 5).

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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).