Accepted guess Not a possible answer A tier for first-turn info

LEARY

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

As an opener, it rules out about 96.1% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Adjective

Alternative spelling of leery.

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 LEARY performs as a guess

Wordle accepts LEARY 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 90.6% of games, misses completely in 9.4%, and leaves about 92 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,459 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.

First-turn measures

All four describe LEARY 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.

5.42 Entropy (bits)
92 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
96.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 97% of evaluated openers
0.53 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How LEARY 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
99.87% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#3,459 Rank among openers
Opening with LEARY left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.73 means those games clustered within about 0.73 of a guess of the 3.64 average. It ranks #3,459 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
90
3 guesses
903
4 guesses
1,134
5 guesses
201
6 guesses
23
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:
AELR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
91%
Green tile
40%
All gray
9%

Feedback distribution

LEARY can come back 127 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

222 answers
181 answers
179 answers
132 answers
112 answers
108 answers
103 answers
96 answers
74 answers
68 answers
60 answers
57 answers
56 answers
53 answers
50 answers
46 answers
45 answers
44 answers
41 answers
35 answers
34 answers
28 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
18 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

L1E1A1R1Y4
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Strategy after playing LEARY

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing LEARY:

9% chance
Suggested:
HOIST
8% chance
Suggested:
TOISE
8% chance
Suggested:
TOISE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

9.4%
HOIST 5.86 bits
7.6%
TOISE 4.63 bits
7.5%
TOISE 5.33 bits
5.6%
GROUT 4.95 bits
4.7%
SATIN 5.08 bits
4.5%
DUSTY 3.88 bits
4.3%
SLICK 4.56 bits
4.0%
SLEET 4.62 bits
3.1%
SAINT 4.37 bits
2.9%
TONAL 4.49 bits

Research on LEARY

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

Optimal play

Opening with LEARY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.65 guesses and ranks #1,925 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 LEARY can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, at or below the proven-optimal 3.65, 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 LIHREE.

Rhymes with WEARY EERIE TEARY LEERY BEERY

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
LEARY 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.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with internal bodily sensation (2.6 of 5).

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).