KEBAB
Yes, KEBAB was the Wordle answer on October 5, 2021 (Wordle #108).
As an opener, it rules out about 86.6% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /kəˈbæb//kɪˈbæb//kɪˈbɑːb/
- Noun
-
A dish of pieces of meat, fish, or vegetables roasted on a skewer or spit, especially a doner kebab.
- Noun
-
A hand-held dish consisting of pieces of meat roasted on an upright skewer mixed with fresh vegetables and sauces and rolled up in a round piece of unleavened bread.
- Verb
-
To roast in the style of a kebab.
- Verb
-
To stab or skewer.
Alternative forms: kabaab, kabob, kebap, kabab
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 5, 2021 (#108).
See the full page for that puzzle: October 5, 2021 (#108).
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 KEBAB performs as a guess
KEBAB 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 76.2% of games, misses completely in 23.8%, and leaves about 318 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #14,290 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.93 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 KEBAB 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 KEBAB 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 KEBAB in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
KEBAB can come back 56 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 KEBAB; 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 KEBAB
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to KEBAB.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing KEBAB:
Research on KEBAB
Game-tree analysis and word research for KEBAB, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with KEBAB, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.91 guesses and ranks #13,996 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
No guaranteed hard-mode solve In hard mode, no strategy that opens with KEBAB can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.93; proven optimal play reaches 3.91. 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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, KEBAB is a kind of dish.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- KEBAB 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.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with taste (3.6 of 5).
In a sentence
I feel like having some kebab.
We have five kinds of kebab.
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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).