5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess C tier opener

DOWEL

Yes, DOWEL was the Wordle answer on May 11, 2025 (Wordle #1422).

As an opener, it rules out about 92.6% of possible answers.

Open Solver with DOWEL Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈdaʊəl/

Noun

A pin, or block, of wood or metal, fitting into holes in the abutting portions of two pieces, and being partly in one piece and partly in the other, to keep them in their proper relative position.

Noun

A wooden rod, as one to make short pins from.

Verb

To fasten together with dowels.

Verb

To furnish with dowels.

“A cooper dowels pieces for the head of a cask.”

Alternative forms: doul

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 11, 2025 (#1422).

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

Wordle Observatory

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About the project

Add an anonymous result and difficulty rating to the public, aggregate research dataset.

We send only this answer word for puzzle verification, the puzzle number, result, difficulty vote, Hard Mode flag, timezone and a random one-puzzle receipt token. The Observatory stores no answer word, grid, guesses, account, email, IP-derived ID or reusable player identifier. The puzzle-specific receipt prevents duplicate submissions and permits withdrawal; anyone with that token can withdraw, so keep browser-data exports private. See the privacy details.

How DOWEL performs as a guess

DOWEL is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,358 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 81.8% of games, misses completely in 18.2%, and leaves about 175 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete v5 benchmark, it ranks #4,662 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.66 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.

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__E_ D in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _O__L O in the 2nd position and L in the 5th position

Try next

SAINT REAST ARSON SAUCY STAIR STALE
Words starting with D Words ending with L

First-turn measures

4.72 Entropy (bits)
175 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
92.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 66% of evaluated openers
1.23 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opener: v5 benchmark

How DOWEL 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.

3.66 Avg guesses
100.0% Win rate
0.69 Volatility
#4,662 v5 opener rank
In the complete v5 snapshot, DOWEL ranks #4,662 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
62
3 guesses
885
4 guesses
1,195
5 guesses
201
6 guesses
10
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.45 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ELO

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
32%
All gray
18%

Example solver route

R O A T E
V I N Y L
B O W E L
D O W E L

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches DOWEL in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

102 possible patterns. Top outcomes:

428
329
165
163
128
121
107
67
55
51
49
41
38
33
30
28
27
27
26
25
24
24
19
19
19
19
17
16
15
13

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing DOWEL:

18% chance
Suggested:
SAINT
14% chance
Suggested:
REAST
7% chance
Suggested:
ARSON

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

18.2% →
SAINT 6.19 bits
14.0% →
REAST 5.67 bits
7.0% →
ARSON 5.22 bits
6.9% →
SAUCY 5.06 bits
5.4% →
STAIR 4.63 bits
5.1% →
STALE 4.78 bits
4.5% →
SHART 4.51 bits
2.8% →
SNORE 4.39 bits
2.3% →
GEARE 4.49 bits
2.2% →
NADIR 4.64 bits

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

D2O1W4E1L1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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