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

EXCEL

Yes, EXCEL was the Wordle answer on December 22, 2022 (Wordle #551).

As an opener, it rules out about 86.4% of possible answers.

Open Solver with EXCEL Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ɪkˈsɛl//ɛkˈsɛl/

Verb

To surpass someone or something; to be better or do better than someone or something.

“I excelled everyone else with my exam results.”

Verb

To be much better than others.

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: December 22, 2022 (#551).

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 EXCEL performs as a guess

EXCEL 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 70.7% of games, misses completely in 29.3%, and leaves about 320 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete v5 benchmark, it ranks #13,109 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.85 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.

E___L E in the 1st position and L in the 5th position E__E_ E in the 1st position and E in the 4th position

Try next

ROAST IRATE ALLOT CHAIN STALE CARSE
Words starting with E Words ending with L

First-turn measures

3.75 Entropy (bits)
320 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
86.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 13% of evaluated openers
2.19 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opener: v5 benchmark

How EXCEL 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.

3.85 Avg guesses
99.8% Win rate
0.71 Volatility
#13,109 v5 opener rank
In the complete v5 snapshot, EXCEL ranks #13,109 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
42
3 guesses
646
4 guesses
1,313
5 guesses
321
6 guesses
27
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

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
EL

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
71%
Green tile
23%
All gray
29%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S I L E N
B E E C H
E X C E L

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches EXCEL in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

64 possible patterns. Top outcomes:

692
365
223
183
144
124
78
77
55
48
41
34
26
22
21
19
19
18
12
12
11
11
10
10
9
9
8
7
6
6

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing EXCEL:

29% chance
Suggested:
ROAST
15% chance
Suggested:
IRATE
9% chance
Suggested:
ALLOT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

29.3% →
ROAST 6.05 bits
15.5% →
IRATE 5.46 bits
9.5% →
ALLOT 5.02 bits
7.8% →
CHAIN 5.25 bits
6.1% →
ROAST 4.39 bits
5.3% →
STALE 4.76 bits
3.3% →
ROAST 4.67 bits
3.3% →
CARSE 4.87 bits
2.3% →
CLAIM 4.21 bits
2.0% →
STEER 4.17 bits

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

E1X8C3E1L1
Total: 14 points

Words With Friends

Total: 16 points

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