LEGAL
Yes, LEGAL was the Wordle answer on July 17, 2026 (Wordle #1854).
As an opener, it rules out about 91.2% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈliː.ɡəl//ˈli.ɡəl/
- Adjective
-
Relating to the law or to lawyers.
“legal profession”
- Adjective
-
Having its basis in the law.
“legal precedent”
- Noun
-
The legal department of a company or organization.
“Legal wants this in writing.”
- Noun
-
A spy who is attached to, and ostensibly employed by, an embassy, military outpost, etc.
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: July 17, 2026 (#1854).
See the full page for that puzzle: July 17, 2026 (#1854).
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 LEGAL performs as a guess
LEGAL 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 81.2% of games, misses completely in 18.8%, and leaves about 209 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,203 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.77 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 LEGAL 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 LEGAL 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 LEGAL in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
LEGAL can come back 93 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 LEGAL; 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 LEGAL
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to LEGAL.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing LEGAL:
Research on LEGAL
Game-tree analysis and word research for LEGAL, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with LEGAL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.79 guesses and ranks #10,006 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 LEGAL can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.77, at or below the proven-optimal 3.79, 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.
Related meanings
Synonyms SOUND VALID eligible legitimate judicial statutory
Opposites illegal invalid ineligible
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- LEGAL sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 120 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
- Learner level
- Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B1); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 9, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 36 of 100. Raters found it difficult to picture.
In a sentence
It's legal in this state.
Is that a legal move?
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; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0).