Possible answer Not used yet C tier for first-turn info

IMPLY

IMPLY is on the solver's possible-answer list but has not appeared as a Wordle answer yet.

As an opener, it rules out about 87.4% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ɪmˈplaɪ/

Verb

To have as a necessary consequence; to lead to (something) as a consequence.

“Correlation does not imply causation”

Verb

To suggest by logical inference.

“When I state that your dog is brown, I am not implying that all dogs are brown.”

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

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 IMPLY performs as a guess

IMPLY 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 70.9% of games, misses completely in 29.1%, and leaves about 298 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,560 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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.

First-turn measures

All four describe IMPLY 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.

4.05 Entropy (bits)
298 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
87.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 25% of evaluated openers
1.90 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How IMPLY 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.

3.69 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#6,560 Rank among openers
Opening with IMPLY solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.69 average. It ranks #6,560 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
54
3 guesses
831
4 guesses
1,258
5 guesses
196
6 guesses
14
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
1 vowels
Common:
IL

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
71%
Green tile
24%
All gray
29%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I M Y
D I M L Y
I M P L Y

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches IMPLY in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

IMPLY can come back 84 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

692 answers
299 answers
257 answers
159 answers
113 answers
105 answers
87 answers
55 answers
45 answers
44 answers
38 answers
37 answers
33 answers
32 answers
26 answers
25 answers
25 answers
23 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
16 answers
15 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
9 answers
9 answers
8 answers
7 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

I1M3P3L1Y4
Total: 12 points

Words With Friends

Total: 14 points

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

Strategy after playing IMPLY

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing IMPLY:

29% chance
Suggested:
ORATE
13% chance
Suggested:
TRINE
11% chance
Suggested:
CANOE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

29.1%
ORATE 6.21 bits
12.6%
TRINE 5.55 bits
10.8%
CANOE 5.35 bits
6.7%
SARED 5.03 bits
4.8%
STRAE 5.55 bits
4.4%
MORAE 5.46 bits
3.7%
CRANE 4.38 bits
2.3%
SAUTE 4.73 bits
1.9%
CADET 4.45 bits
1.9%
CRONE 4.62 bits

Research on IMPLY

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

Optimal play

Opening with IMPLY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.74 guesses and ranks #7,617 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.86 guesses at best and is rank #3,094 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, at or below the proven-optimal 3.74, 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 second syllable Say it IHMPLY.

Rhymes with APPLY REPLY THIGH DECRY RETRY

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, IMPLY is a kind of show or express.

Synonyms mean involve entail

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
IMPLY sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 7 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sound (3.6 of 5).

In a sentence

What are you trying to imply?
© tatoeba.org contributor WilliamKwok (CC BY 2.0 FR)
I didn't mean to imply that.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (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; Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).