GROWL
Yes, GROWL was the Wordle answer on October 24, 2021 (Wordle #127).
As an opener, it rules out about 91.1% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈɡɹaʊ̯l//ˈɡɹæʊ̯l//ˈɡɹaːl/
- Noun
-
A deep, rumbling, threatening sound made in the throat by an animal.
- Noun
-
A similar sound made by a human.
- Verb
-
To utter a deep guttural sound, as an angry animal; to give forth an angry, grumbling sound.
“The dog growled at me as I walked past.”
- Verb
-
Of a wind instrument: to produce a low-pitched rumbling sound.
Alternative forms: groil, groul
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: October 24, 2021 (#127).
See the full page for that puzzle: October 24, 2021 (#127).
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 GROWL performs as a guess
GROWL 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 78.4% of games, misses completely in 21.6%, and leaves about 211 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,639 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.68 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 GROWL 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 GROWL 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 GROWL in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
GROWL can come back 89 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 GROWL; 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 GROWL
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to GROWL.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing GROWL:
Research on GROWL
Game-tree analysis and word research for GROWL, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with GROWL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.73 guesses and ranks #7,111 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.83 guesses at best and is rank #2,304 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.68, at or below the proven-optimal 3.73, 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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, GROWL is a kind of cry or utter.
Synonyms rumble
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- GROWL 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.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 62 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sound (4.3 of 5).
In a sentence
I like to make him growl.
Did you just growl at me?
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); Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).