DOZEN
Yes, DOZEN was the Wordle answer on October 26, 2021 (Wordle #129).
As an opener, it rules out about 90.6% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈdʌzən//ˈdɐzən/
- Noun
-
A set of twelve.
“Can I have a dozen eggs, please?”
- Noun
-
A large, unspecified number of, comfortably estimated in small multiples of twelve, thus generally implied to be significantly more than ten or twelve, but less than perhaps one or two hundred; many.
“There must have been dozens of examples just on the first page.”
Alternative forms: doz
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
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Used oncePast Wordle answer: October 26, 2021 (#129).
See the full page for that puzzle: October 26, 2021 (#129).
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →How DOZEN performs as a guess
DOZEN 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 78.9% of games, misses completely in 21.1%, and leaves about 224 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,744 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.73 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe DOZEN 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How DOZEN 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches DOZEN in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
DOZEN can come back 77 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for DOZEN; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing DOZEN
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to DOZEN.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing DOZEN:
Research on DOZEN
Game-tree analysis and word research for DOZEN, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with DOZEN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.75 guesses and ranks #8,107 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 DOZEN can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.73, at or below the proven-optimal 3.75, 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 DUHZUHN.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, DOZEN is a kind of integer.
Synonyms twelve xii cardinal
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- DOZEN sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 22 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
- Learner level
- Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B1); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.0 of 5).
In a sentence
Half a dozen is six.
Give me a dozen of them, please.
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).