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

EARLS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 96.6% of possible answers.

Open Solver with EARLS Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of earl

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 EARLS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts EARLS 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 90.9% of games, misses completely in 9.1%, and leaves about 81 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,573 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.61 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.

E___S E in the 1st position and S in the 5th position E__L_ E in the 1st position and L in the 4th position _A__S A in the 2nd position and S in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe EARLS 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.

5.52 Entropy (bits)
81 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
96.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 99% of evaluated openers
0.42 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How EARLS 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.

3.61 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#1,573 Rank among openers
Opening with EARLS left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.61 average. It ranks #1,573 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
89
3 guesses
944
4 guesses
1,129
5 guesses
172
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

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AELRS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
91%
Green tile
29%
All gray
9%

Feedback distribution

EARLS can come back 113 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

215 answers
168 answers
156 answers
116 answers
109 answers
87 answers
85 answers
85 answers
75 answers
69 answers
67 answers
63 answers
59 answers
59 answers
47 answers
44 answers
38 answers
38 answers
34 answers
33 answers
33 answers
33 answers
30 answers
27 answers
26 answers
24 answers
24 answers
24 answers
22 answers
21 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

E1A1R1L1S1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 6 points

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

Try next

COUNT TRIED TINGE SNOUT PRINT TANGY

Strategy after playing EARLS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing EARLS:

9% chance
Suggested:
COUNT
7% chance
Suggested:
TRIED
7% chance
Suggested:
TINGE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

9.1% →
COUNT 5.60 bits
7.1% →
TRIED 4.53 bits
6.6% →
TINGE 5.18 bits
4.9% →
SNOUT 4.91 bits
4.6% →
PRINT 4.75 bits
3.7% →
TANGY 4.07 bits
3.6% →
CLOUT 4.54 bits
3.6% →
SPENT 4.80 bits
3.2% →
GRAND 4.27 bits
2.9% →
BOITE 4.20 bits

Research on EARLS

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

Optimal play

Opening with EARLS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.64 guesses and ranks #1,177 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 EARLS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.61, 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

One syllable Say it URLZ.

Rhymes with GIRLS CURLS PERLS

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, EARLS is a kind of peer.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
EARLS 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.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.4 of 5).

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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).