5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess B tier for first-turn info

HOTEL

Yes, HOTEL was the Wordle answer on July 3, 2023 (Wordle #744).

As an opener, it rules out about 95.5% of possible answers.

Open Solver with HOTEL Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /həʊˈtɛl//əʊˈtɛl//ˈhoʊ.tɛl/

Noun

An establishment that provides accommodation and other services for paying guests; normally larger than a guesthouse, and often one of a chain.

Noun

A public house or pub.

Alternative forms: hôtel

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: July 3, 2023 (#744).

See the full page for that puzzle: July 3, 2023 (#744).

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

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How HOTEL performs as a guess

HOTEL 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 88.8% of games, misses completely in 11.2%, and leaves about 107 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,943 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.64 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.

H___L H in the 1st position and L in the 5th position H__E_ H in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _O__L O in the 2nd position and L in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe HOTEL 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.

5.26 Entropy (bits)
107 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
95.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 94% of evaluated openers
0.68 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How HOTEL 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.

3.64 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#2,943 Rank among openers
Opening with HOTEL solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.64 average. It ranks #2,943 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
74
3 guesses
941
4 guesses
1,122
5 guesses
196
6 guesses
20
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:
ELOT

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
89%
Green tile
33%
All gray
11%

Example solver route

R O A T E
M U L C H
H O T E L

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches HOTEL in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

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

267 answers
251 answers
134 answers
131 answers
130 answers
120 answers
100 answers
97 answers
68 answers
67 answers
57 answers
46 answers
42 answers
38 answers
38 answers
37 answers
35 answers
34 answers
33 answers
33 answers
32 answers
31 answers
30 answers
25 answers
24 answers
21 answers
21 answers
21 answers
21 answers
18 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

H4O1T1E1L1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Try next

CAIRN ARISE SAUCY SAINT ARSON AIDER

Strategy after playing HOTEL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing HOTEL:

11% chance
Suggested:
CAIRN
11% chance
Suggested:
ARISE
6% chance
Suggested:
SAUCY

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

11.2% →
CAIRN 5.72 bits
10.6% →
ARISE 5.30 bits
5.6% →
SAUCY 4.86 bits
5.5% →
SAINT 5.59 bits
5.5% →
ARSON 5.28 bits
5.1% →
AIDER 4.18 bits
4.2% →
SEARE 4.94 bits
4.1% →
RAILE 4.42 bits
2.9% →
SCARY 4.12 bits
2.8% →
CHAIR 4.85 bits

Research on HOTEL

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

Optimal play

Opening with HOTEL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.63 guesses and ranks #748 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.78 guesses at best and is rank #772 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64; proven optimal play reaches 3.63. 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.

How it sounds

Two syllables, stress on the second syllable Say it HOHTEHL.

Rhymes with SMELL SHELL SPELL INTEL BELLE

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, HOTEL is a kind of building.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
HOTEL sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 89 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A1); among the first words English learners study.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 94 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.9 of 5).

In a sentence

This is not a hotel.
© tatoeba.org contributor Just_Balls (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Do you have a hotel?
© tatoeba.org contributor Miktsoanit (CC BY 2.0 FR)

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); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).