5 FiveLetterWords
Very unlikely Accepted guess C tier for first-turn info

DRYAD

DRYAD is an accepted guess. Its modelled answer likelihood is very unlikely; no globally completed appearance is recorded here.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈdɹaɪəd//ˈdɹaɪˌæd/

Noun

A female tree spirit; a woodnymph or tree nymph.

Noun

Any of the dryas plants, especially the plant mountain avens.

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Etymology

From Old French driade (“wood nymph”), from Latin Dryas, Dryadis, from Ancient Greek Δρυάς (Druás, “dryad”), from δρῦς (drûs, “oak”), from Proto-Indo-European *derew(o)- (“tree, wood”); cf. Proto-Indo-European *dóru (“tree”).

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

Related meanings by dictionary sense

noun

a deity or nymph of the woods

Open English WordNet, 2025 edition, CC BY 4.0. Source dictionary. Senses are kept separate; no puzzle appearance is assigned to a meaning without evidence.

Use DRYAD in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 88.9% of possible answers.

Open Solver with DRYAD Open Word Finder

Wordle status

Answer chance: very unlikely. Roughly 0.05% within a year (about 1 in 2,113), under the model through 2026-11-05. This is an estimate, not a publisher forecast. How this is calculated.

Playable guess

Yes

Included in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.

Earlier benchmark pool

No

Membership in the preserved uniform benchmark; it is not a future eligibility rule.

Past Wordle answer

No completed appearance

No appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.

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

How DRYAD performs as a guess

Wordle accepts DRYAD as a guess. It is outside this preserved uniform benchmark’s answer pool; that is not a claim about future eligibility.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 75.7% of games, misses completely in 24.3%, and leaves about 265 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #11,441 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.80 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___D D in the 1st position and D in the 5th position D__A_ D in the 1st position and A in the 4th position _R__D R in the 2nd position and D in the 5th position DR_AD D in the 1st position, R in the 2nd position, A in the 4th position, and D in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe DRYAD 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.

4.09 Entropy (bits)
265 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
88.9% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How DRYAD 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.

3.80 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#11,441 Rank among openers
Opening with DRYAD left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.80 average. It ranks #11,441 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
43
3 guesses
750
4 guesses
1,230
5 guesses
304
6 guesses
25

Composition

4/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
AR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
25%
All gray
24%

When DRYAD is useful later

DRYAD tied for the smallest expected survivor count in 3 of 54 sampled positions where it was legal. This designed sample is not a measure of how often real players should use it.

After CRANE: 3 candidates, normal mode

CRANE: 01100 (0 = grey, 1 = yellow, 2 = green).

PORTA: 10201 (0 = grey, 1 = yellow, 2 = green).

BARPS: 01211 (0 = grey, 1 = yellow, 2 = green).

Remaining answers: SPRAD, SPRAG, SPRAY.

With a budget of 3 more guesses, DRYAD is an information probe, outside this survivor list. It leaves 1.00 candidates on average under the model. Every feedback identifies a single candidate; another turn may be needed to submit it.

Try this position in the Solver
After ADIEU: 4 candidates, normal mode

ADIEU: 02000 (0 = grey, 1 = yellow, 2 = green).

Remaining answers: ODDLY, ODOOM, ODORS, ODYLS.

With a budget of 5 more guesses, DRYAD is an information probe, outside this survivor list. It leaves 1.00 candidates on average under the model. Every feedback identifies a single candidate; another turn may be needed to submit it.

Try this position in the Solver
After AUDIO: 3 candidates, normal mode

AUDIO: 11200 (0 = grey, 1 = yellow, 2 = green).

Remaining answers: LADDU, SADHU, UNDAM.

With a budget of 5 more guesses, DRYAD is an information probe, outside this survivor list. It leaves 1.00 candidates on average under the model. Every feedback identifies a single candidate; another turn may be needed to submit it.

Try this position in the Solver
Sample and method

Every saved board is reachable within a six-turn game. Remaining turns equal six minus the saved history length. The sampling policy is independent of the expected-survivor metric. Two states at each of three depths per opener were selected by a fixed hash from an independent candidate-only sampling policy. Every accepted guess was evaluated. Model answer-model-2026-11-05-9183a914c959, data through 2026-11-05. The score measures expected survivors, not proved solve length or human difficulty.

How this is calculated.

How the solver finds DRYAD

The strategy receives only earlier guesses and their feedback. It does not know the answer before choosing a move. Guessing the answer itself on turn one is a lucky one-turn result, not a recommended general strategy.

Normal mode

Our solver: bounded weighted policy. Current-pool replay over 14,855 accepted words. Model through 2026-11-05.

  1. The fixed opener tests its five letters.

    14,855 before → 287 after. This feedback leaves 287 candidates.

    All 287 surviving candidates

    ABHOR, ABORD, ABORN, ABURA, ABURN, ACARA, ACARI, ACCRA, ACHAR, ACORN, ADDRA, ADORB, ADORN, AFARA, AGGRI, AGGRO, AGGRY, AGORA, AHURU, AKARA, ALARM, ALARY, ALGOR, ALURK, ALVAR, AMARI, AMARO, AMBRY, AMOUR, ANDRO, ANGRY, ANURA, APGAR, APPRO, ARABA, ARBAH, ARBOR, ARCHI, ARDOR, ARDRI, ARGAL, ARGAN, ARGIL, ARGOL, ARGON, ARIKI, ARMIL, ARMOR, AROBA, AROHA, AROID, AROMA, ARVAL, AUGUR, AWARD, AWARI, AWARN, AWMRY, AWORK, AZURN, AZURY, BOARD, BOLAR, BOYAR, BRAAI, BRACH, BRACK, BRAID, BRAIL, BRAIN, BRAKY, BRAND, BRANK, BRAVA, BRAVI, BRAVO, BRAWL, BRAWN, BRAXY, BRAZA, BRIAR, BROAD, BRUJA, CHAIR, CHARA, CHARD, CHARK, CHARM, CHARR, CHARY, CIGAR, CIMAR, CLAIR, CLARO, CLARY, COARB, COBRA, COPRA, CRAAL, CRACK, CRAIC, CRAIG, CRAMP, CRANK, CRAPY, CRAWL, CRAZY, CROAK, CRURA, CYMAR, DIARY, DINAR, DOBRA, DOUAR, DOURA, DOWAR, DRACK, DRACO, DRAFF, DRAIL, DRAIN, DRAMA, DRANK, DRAPY, DRAWL, DRAWN, DRYAD, DWARF, FILAR, FLAIR, FLARY, FLORA, FNARR, FRACK, FRAIL, FRAIM, FRANC, FRANK, FRAUD, FRIAR, FUBAR, GLAIR, GLARY, GLAUR, GNARL, GNARR, GOARY, GOBAR, GOURA, GRAAL, GRAFF, GRAIL, GRAIN, GRAIP, GRAMA, GRAMP, GRANA, GRAND, GRANO, GRAPH, GRAPY, GRAVY, GROAN, GROMA, GUARD, GULAR, HIJRA, HILAR, HOARD, HOARY, HYDRA, IMARI, IMBAR, INARM, INFRA, INVAR, IXORA, IZARD, JOWAR, JUMAR, KNARL, KNAUR, KOKRA, KOURA, KRAAL, KRANG, KRANZ, KRONA, LIARD, LIBRA, LIDAR, LOBAR, LUBRA, LUNAR, LYARD, LYCRA, MBARI, MBIRA, MICRA, MIKRA, MINAR, MOGAR, MOGRA, MOHAR, MOIRA, MOLAR, MOWRA, MUDAR, MUDRA, MYLAR, ORACH, ORACY, ORANG, ORGAN, ORGIA, ORIXA, ORVAL, OVARY, OWARI, PHARM, PICRA, PILAR, PLAUR, POLAR, PRAAM, PRAHU, PRANA, PRANG, PRANK, PRAWN, PRIAL, PRIAN, PRIMA, PROAL, PRORA, PRYAN, QUAIR, QUARK, QUARL, RHABD, RIKKA, RIKWA, RIOJA, RIVAL, RIYAL, ROACH, ROADY, ROAKY, ROANY, ROARY, ROGAN, ROHAN, ROJAK, ROLAG, ROMAL, ROMAN, ROWAN, ROYAL, RUACH, RUANA, RUBAI, RUBAN, RUGAL, RUMAL, RUMBA, RUPIA, ULNAR, UMBRA, UNARM, UNARY, UNBAR, URALI, URARI, URBAN, URBIA, URIAL, URMAN, URNAL, URUPA, VICAR, VOLAR, VRAIC, WHARF, WHAUR, WRACK, WRANG, WRAWL

    Decision measures before feedback

    Expected remaining candidates: 414.45. Information: 5.74 bits. These measures describe the decision before its realised feedback.

  2. Test CRAAL against the 287 candidates consistent with the earlier rows.

    287 before → 10 after. This feedback leaves 10 candidates.

    All 10 surviving candidates

    BRIAR, BROAD, DRYAD, FRIAR, GROAN, ORGAN, PRIAN, PRYAN, URBAN, URMAN

    Decision measures before feedback

    Expected remaining candidates: 15.757. Information: 3.931 bits. These measures describe the decision before its realised feedback.

  3. Test BRIAR against the 10 candidates consistent with the earlier rows.

    10 before → 5 after. This feedback leaves 5 candidates.

    All 5 surviving candidates

    DRYAD, GROAN, ORGAN, PRYAN, URMAN

    Decision measures before feedback

    Expected remaining candidates: 1.034. Information: 0.943 bits. These measures describe the decision before its realised feedback.

  4. Test GROAN against the 5 candidates consistent with the earlier rows.

    5 before → 1 after. This feedback leaves 1 candidate.

    All 1 surviving candidates

    DRYAD

    Decision measures before feedback

    Expected remaining candidates: 1.168. Information: 1.795 bits. These measures describe the decision before its realised feedback.

  5. Submit the only remaining candidate.

    1 before → 1 after. The answer is submitted and solved.

    All 1 surviving candidates

    DRYAD

    Decision measures before feedback

    Expected remaining candidates: 1.0. Information: 0.0 bits. These measures describe the decision before its realised feedback.

Solved in 5 guesses. Uniquely identified on turn 4.

Continue this board in the Solver

Hard Mode

Our solver: bounded weighted policy. Current-pool replay over 14,855 accepted words. Model through 2026-11-05.

  1. The fixed opener tests its five letters.

    14,855 before → 287 after. This feedback leaves 287 candidates.

    All 287 surviving candidates

    ABHOR, ABORD, ABORN, ABURA, ABURN, ACARA, ACARI, ACCRA, ACHAR, ACORN, ADDRA, ADORB, ADORN, AFARA, AGGRI, AGGRO, AGGRY, AGORA, AHURU, AKARA, ALARM, ALARY, ALGOR, ALURK, ALVAR, AMARI, AMARO, AMBRY, AMOUR, ANDRO, ANGRY, ANURA, APGAR, APPRO, ARABA, ARBAH, ARBOR, ARCHI, ARDOR, ARDRI, ARGAL, ARGAN, ARGIL, ARGOL, ARGON, ARIKI, ARMIL, ARMOR, AROBA, AROHA, AROID, AROMA, ARVAL, AUGUR, AWARD, AWARI, AWARN, AWMRY, AWORK, AZURN, AZURY, BOARD, BOLAR, BOYAR, BRAAI, BRACH, BRACK, BRAID, BRAIL, BRAIN, BRAKY, BRAND, BRANK, BRAVA, BRAVI, BRAVO, BRAWL, BRAWN, BRAXY, BRAZA, BRIAR, BROAD, BRUJA, CHAIR, CHARA, CHARD, CHARK, CHARM, CHARR, CHARY, CIGAR, CIMAR, CLAIR, CLARO, CLARY, COARB, COBRA, COPRA, CRAAL, CRACK, CRAIC, CRAIG, CRAMP, CRANK, CRAPY, CRAWL, CRAZY, CROAK, CRURA, CYMAR, DIARY, DINAR, DOBRA, DOUAR, DOURA, DOWAR, DRACK, DRACO, DRAFF, DRAIL, DRAIN, DRAMA, DRANK, DRAPY, DRAWL, DRAWN, DRYAD, DWARF, FILAR, FLAIR, FLARY, FLORA, FNARR, FRACK, FRAIL, FRAIM, FRANC, FRANK, FRAUD, FRIAR, FUBAR, GLAIR, GLARY, GLAUR, GNARL, GNARR, GOARY, GOBAR, GOURA, GRAAL, GRAFF, GRAIL, GRAIN, GRAIP, GRAMA, GRAMP, GRANA, GRAND, GRANO, GRAPH, GRAPY, GRAVY, GROAN, GROMA, GUARD, GULAR, HIJRA, HILAR, HOARD, HOARY, HYDRA, IMARI, IMBAR, INARM, INFRA, INVAR, IXORA, IZARD, JOWAR, JUMAR, KNARL, KNAUR, KOKRA, KOURA, KRAAL, KRANG, KRANZ, KRONA, LIARD, LIBRA, LIDAR, LOBAR, LUBRA, LUNAR, LYARD, LYCRA, MBARI, MBIRA, MICRA, MIKRA, MINAR, MOGAR, MOGRA, MOHAR, MOIRA, MOLAR, MOWRA, MUDAR, MUDRA, MYLAR, ORACH, ORACY, ORANG, ORGAN, ORGIA, ORIXA, ORVAL, OVARY, OWARI, PHARM, PICRA, PILAR, PLAUR, POLAR, PRAAM, PRAHU, PRANA, PRANG, PRANK, PRAWN, PRIAL, PRIAN, PRIMA, PROAL, PRORA, PRYAN, QUAIR, QUARK, QUARL, RHABD, RIKKA, RIKWA, RIOJA, RIVAL, RIYAL, ROACH, ROADY, ROAKY, ROANY, ROARY, ROGAN, ROHAN, ROJAK, ROLAG, ROMAL, ROMAN, ROWAN, ROYAL, RUACH, RUANA, RUBAI, RUBAN, RUGAL, RUMAL, RUMBA, RUPIA, ULNAR, UMBRA, UNARM, UNARY, UNBAR, URALI, URARI, URBAN, URBIA, URIAL, URMAN, URNAL, URUPA, VICAR, VOLAR, VRAIC, WHARF, WHAUR, WRACK, WRANG, WRAWL

    Decision measures before feedback

    Expected remaining candidates: 414.45. Information: 5.74 bits. These measures describe the decision before its realised feedback.

  2. Test CRAAL against the 287 candidates consistent with the earlier rows.

    287 before → 10 after. This feedback leaves 10 candidates.

    All 10 surviving candidates

    BRIAR, BROAD, DRYAD, FRIAR, GROAN, ORGAN, PRIAN, PRYAN, URBAN, URMAN

    Decision measures before feedback

    Expected remaining candidates: 15.757. Information: 3.931 bits. These measures describe the decision before its realised feedback.

  3. Test BRIAR against the 10 candidates consistent with the earlier rows.

    10 before → 5 after. This feedback leaves 5 candidates.

    All 5 surviving candidates

    DRYAD, GROAN, ORGAN, PRYAN, URMAN

    Decision measures before feedback

    Expected remaining candidates: 1.034. Information: 0.943 bits. These measures describe the decision before its realised feedback.

  4. Test GROAN against the 5 candidates consistent with the earlier rows.

    5 before → 1 after. This feedback leaves 1 candidate.

    All 1 surviving candidates

    DRYAD

    Decision measures before feedback

    Expected remaining candidates: 1.168. Information: 1.795 bits. These measures describe the decision before its realised feedback.

  5. Submit the only remaining candidate.

    1 before → 1 after. The answer is submitted and solved.

    All 1 surviving candidates

    DRYAD

    Decision measures before feedback

    Expected remaining candidates: 1.0. Information: 0.0 bits. These measures describe the decision before its realised feedback.

Solved in 5 guesses. Uniquely identified on turn 4.

Continue this board in the Solver

How the fixed opener panel performs on this answer

OpenerFirst feedbackSurvivorsNormalHard Mode
TARSE01100 (0 grey, 1 yellow, 2 green)28755
CRANE02100 (0 grey, 1 yellow, 2 green)6944
SLATE00100 (0 grey, 1 yellow, 2 green)110144
ADIEU11000 (0 grey, 1 yellow, 2 green)30155
STARE00110 (0 grey, 1 yellow, 2 green)38644
AUDIO10100 (0 grey, 1 yellow, 2 green)42545
RAISE11000 (0 grey, 1 yellow, 2 green)35033
ROATE10100 (0 grey, 1 yellow, 2 green)44744
SALET01000 (0 grey, 1 yellow, 2 green)74955
Normal mode
1 guess: 0 · 2 guesses: 0 · 3 guesses: 1 · 4 guesses: 5 · 5 guesses: 3 · 6 guesses: 0 · Failed in six: 0
Hard Mode
1 guess: 0 · 2 guesses: 0 · 3 guesses: 1 · 4 guesses: 4 · 5 guesses: 4 · 6 guesses: 0 · Failed in six: 0

The nine openers use the same pool and continuation policy. Across both modes: 3–5 guesses among successes; 0 of 18 configurations failed. This is performance on this answer, not an overall opener ranking.

78 openers set up a two-turn opportunity; examples include ADDED, DREAM, DADDY, DATED, DIARY, DRIED, DRAKE, TEDDY, DAISY, DREAD. After their feedback, this answer is among the most likely survivors with at least half the model probability. This is an opportunity, not a guarantee. An opener that immediately solves is excluded.

Why this answer can be difficult

The answer contains 2 copies of D. Feedback allocates exact matches before misplaced copies; a grey duplicate does not erase another coloured copy.

The worked board still allows 10 different answers at one later decision: BRIAR, BROAD, DRYAD, FRIAR, GROAN, ORGAN, PRIAN, PRYAN, URBAN, URMAN. These are mechanical alternatives, not a judgement of vocabulary difficulty.

Vocabulary evidence and voluntary player results are reported separately from these solver observations.

Closest competing answers in this board

These words all fit the earlier feedback, rather than merely sharing similar spelling: BRIAR, BROAD, DRYAD, FRIAR, GROAN, ORGAN, PRIAN, PRYAN, URBAN, URMAN.

A lesson from this route

Before BRIAR, 10 words still fit. Its feedback left 5; check the full survivor list before choosing the next answer.

Try another opener or a different move

How this is calculated

The current policy checks all remaining candidates and up to 128 fixed probes. At six or fewer candidates it uses bounded lookahead, preferring modelled six-turn success, then speed among successes. Larger states use expected survivors as a heuristic. These are recommendations, not proofs of optimal play. Hard Mode retains green positions and revealed letter counts; it allows grey letters and a yellow in the same position. Candidate-only play is stricter.

Methods and limitations

Feedback distribution

DRYAD can come back 73 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

582 answers
370 answers
269 answers
166 answers
133 answers
123 answers
76 answers
70 answers
59 answers
49 answers
45 answers
39 answers
35 answers
30 answers
25 answers
21 answers
18 answers
16 answers
14 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers
8 answers
8 answers
8 answers
7 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

D2R1Y4A1D2
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Try next

TOILE SLANE TOISE SPILE CASTE CONTE

Strategy after playing DRYAD

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing DRYAD:

24% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
15% chance
Suggested:
SLANE
11% chance
Suggested:
TOISE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

24.3% →
TOILE 6.13 bits
15.5% →
SLANE 5.53 bits
11.3% →
TOISE 5.37 bits
6.9% →
SPILE 4.61 bits
5.6% →
CASTE 4.56 bits
5.1% →
CONTE 4.83 bits
3.2% →
CLOTE 4.66 bits
2.9% →
SLANT 4.27 bits
2.5% →
CONTE 3.90 bits
2.0% →
TUILE 4.57 bits

Research on DRYAD

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

Optimal play

Opening with DRYAD, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.80 guesses and ranks #10,825 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 DRYAD can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.80, at or below the proven-optimal 3.80, 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
DRYAD sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words in the source corpus. Corpus frequency does not measure every reader’s familiarity.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).