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

DOLOR

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

As an opener, it rules out about 90.0% of possible answers.

Open Solver with DOLOR Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

Alternative spelling of dolour.

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 DOLOR performs as a guess

Wordle accepts DOLOR 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 76.5% of games, misses completely in 23.5%, and leaves about 236 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,680 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.71 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___R D in the 1st position and R in the 5th position D__O_ D in the 1st position and O in the 4th position _O__R O in the 2nd position and R in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe DOLOR 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.

4.37 Entropy (bits)
236 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 43% of evaluated openers
1.57 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How DOLOR 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.

3.71 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#7,680 Rank among openers
Opening with DOLOR left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.71 average. It ranks #7,680 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
51
3 guesses
838
4 guesses
1,213
5 guesses
233
6 guesses
18
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)
76%
Green tile
30%
All gray
24%

Feedback distribution

DOLOR can come back 92 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

558 answers
322 answers
294 answers
98 answers
92 answers
86 answers
86 answers
78 answers
61 answers
55 answers
46 answers
45 answers
38 answers
36 answers
33 answers
32 answers
28 answers
24 answers
23 answers
23 answers
20 answers
19 answers
15 answers
15 answers
13 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

D2O1L1O1R1
Total: 6 points

Words With Friends

Total: 7 points

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

Try next

SAINE SAICE SAINT STANE CASTE ANISE

Strategy after playing DOLOR

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing DOLOR:

24% chance
Suggested:
SAINE
14% chance
Suggested:
SAICE
12% chance
Suggested:
SAINE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

23.5% →
SAINE 6.23 bits
13.6% →
SAICE 5.64 bits
12.4% →
SAINE 5.43 bits
4.1% →
SAINT 4.26 bits
3.9% →
STANE 5.23 bits
3.6% →
CASTE 4.64 bits
3.6% →
ANISE 5.24 bits
3.3% →
STANE 4.41 bits
2.6% →
SABLE 4.74 bits
2.3% →
TIARE 4.53 bits

Research on DOLOR

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

Optimal play

Opening with DOLOR, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.74 guesses and ranks #7,306 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 DOLOR can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.71, 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 DAHLUR. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, DOLOR is a kind of grief.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
DOLOR sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.

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).