FABLE
Yes, FABLE was the Wordle answer on January 1, 2026 (Wordle #1657).
As an opener, it rules out about 93.3% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈfeɪbəl/
- Noun
-
A fictitious narrative intended to enforce some useful truth or precept, usually with animals, etc. as characters; an apologue. Prototypically, Aesop's Fables.
- Noun
-
Any story told to excite wonder; common talk; the theme of talk.
- Verb
-
To compose fables; hence, to write or speak fiction; to write or utter what is not true.
- Verb
-
To make up; to devise, and speak of, as true or real; to tell of falsely; to recount in the form of a fable.
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: January 1, 2026 (#1657).
See the full page for that puzzle: January 1, 2026 (#1657).
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
Wordle Observatory · optional
Played this Wordle?
Add your result to the public totals · about 20 seconds
Wordle Observatory · optional
Played this Wordle?
Add your result to the public totals · about 20 seconds
Add your result and a quick difficulty rating to help explain how this puzzle played.
See the public dataThank you. Your result now helps describe this puzzle.
See what the public sample says →How FABLE performs as a guess
FABLE 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 82.4% of games, misses completely in 17.6%, and leaves about 159 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,999 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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 FABLE 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 FABLE 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 FABLE in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
FABLE can come back 104 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 FABLE; 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 FABLE
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to FABLE.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing FABLE:
Research on FABLE
Game-tree analysis and word research for FABLE, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with FABLE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #4,001 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 FABLE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, at or below the proven-optimal 3.69, 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 FAYBUHL.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, FABLE is a kind of statement or story.
Synonyms fiction legend fabrication parable allegory
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- FABLE sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about once per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sound (3.9 of 5).
In a sentence
It's a fable about busy ants.
What's the difference between a fable and a fairytale?
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).