IGLOO
Yes, IGLOO was the Wordle answer on May 22, 2023 (Wordle #702).
As an opener, it rules out about 86.9% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈɪɡ.luː/
- Noun
-
A dome-shaped Inuit shelter, constructed of blocks cut from snow.
- Noun
-
A cavity, or excavation, made in the snow by a seal, over its breathing hole in the sea ice.
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: May 22, 2023 (#702).
See the full page for that puzzle: May 22, 2023 (#702).
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 IGLOO performs as a guess
IGLOO 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 71.9% of games, misses completely in 28.1%, and leaves about 310 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #11,977 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.81 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 IGLOO 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 IGLOO 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 IGLOO in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
IGLOO can come back 66 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 IGLOO; 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 IGLOO
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to IGLOO.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing IGLOO:
Research on IGLOO
Game-tree analysis and word research for IGLOO, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with IGLOO, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.85 guesses and ranks #12,683 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.96 guesses at best and is rank #5,514 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.81, at or below the proven-optimal 3.85, 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 IHGLOO.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, IGLOO is a kind of hut.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- IGLOO 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.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 7, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 92 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.5 of 5).
In a sentence
The igloo is not small.
I want to build an igloo.
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).