GAVEL
Yes, GAVEL was the Wordle answer on February 6, 2026 (Wordle #1693).
As an opener, it rules out about 92.8% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈɡa.vəl//ˈɡæ.vəl/
- Verb
-
To divide or distribute according to the gavel system.
- Noun
-
A wooden mallet, used by a courtroom judge, or by a committee chairman, struck against a sounding block to quieten those present, or by an auctioneer to accept the highest bid at auction.
- Noun
-
The beginning or end of legal proceedings.
- Verb
-
To use a gavel.
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: February 6, 2026 (#1693).
See the full page for that puzzle: February 6, 2026 (#1693).
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 GAVEL performs as a guess
GAVEL 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 81.7% of games, misses completely in 18.3%, and leaves about 171 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,209 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.72 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 GAVEL 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 GAVEL 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 GAVEL in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
GAVEL can come back 102 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 GAVEL; 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 GAVEL
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to GAVEL.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing GAVEL:
Research on GAVEL
Game-tree analysis and word research for GAVEL, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with GAVEL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,808 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 GAVEL can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.72; proven optimal play reaches 3.71. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.
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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, GAVEL is a kind of beetle.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- GAVEL 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.
In a sentence
The judge banged his gavel.
The judge banged his gavel again.
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).