5 FiveLetterWords
Accepted guess Not a possible answer C tier opener

HOWLS

HOWLS is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.

As an opener, it rules out about 89.6% of possible answers.

Open Solver with HOWLS Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /haʊlz/

Noun

plural of howl

Verb

third-person singular simple present indicative of howl

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

No

The solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.

Past Wordle answer

Not used yet

No past answer date found.

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

How HOWLS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts HOWLS as a guess, but the solver does not list it as a possible answer.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 74.6% of games, misses completely in 25.4%, and leaves about 244 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete v5 benchmark, it ranks #7,325 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.71 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.

H___S H in the 1st position and S in the 5th position H__L_ H in the 1st position and L in the 4th position _O__S O in the 2nd position and S in the 5th position

Try next

TIARE RAINE TRINE TARGE TRICE DAINE
Words starting with H Words ending with S

First-turn measures

4.28 Entropy (bits)
244 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
89.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 37% of evaluated openers
1.67 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opener: v5 benchmark

How HOWLS 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.

3.71 Avg guesses
100.0% Win rate
0.70 Volatility
#7,325 v5 opener rank
In the complete v5 snapshot, HOWLS ranks #7,325 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
42
3 guesses
875
4 guesses
1,180
5 guesses
242
6 guesses
15
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

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
LOS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
75%
Green tile
22%
All gray
25%

Feedback distribution

80 possible patterns. Top outcomes:

599
258
250
185
111
107
83
59
56
53
52
42
36
36
34
29
28
24
20
18
18
18
16
13
12
10
9
9
9
9

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing HOWLS:

25% chance
Suggested:
TIARE
11% chance
Suggested:
RAINE
11% chance
Suggested:
TIARE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

25.4% →
TIARE 6.14 bits
10.9% →
RAINE 5.37 bits
10.6% →
TIARE 5.74 bits
7.8% →
TRINE 5.30 bits
4.7% →
TARGE 4.62 bits
4.5% →
TRICE 5.57 bits
3.5% →
DAINE 4.66 bits
2.5% →
STRAE 4.56 bits
2.4% →
REACT 4.34 bits
2.2% →
FARCE 4.02 bits

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

H4O1W4L1S1
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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