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

MALAR

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈmeɪlə/

Adjective

Pertaining to the cheek.

Noun

The cheekbone, which forms a part of the lower edge of the orbit.

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Etymology

From modern Latin malaris, from Latin mala (“jaw, cheek-bone”).

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

Use MALAR in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 91.3% of possible answers.

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

No completed appearance

No appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

How MALAR performs as a guess

Wordle accepts MALAR 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 78.3% of games, misses completely in 21.7%, and leaves about 208 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,255 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.73 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 MALAR 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.

4.51 Entropy (bits)
208 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
91.3% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How MALAR 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.

3.73 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#8,255 Rank among openers
Opening with MALAR left 1 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 3.73 average. It ranks #8,255 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
52
3 guesses
859
4 guesses
1,144
5 guesses
279
6 guesses
19

Composition

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ALR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
78%
Green tile
32%
All gray
22%

Feedback distribution

MALAR can come back 93 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

518 answers
312 answers
215 answers
136 answers
117 answers
114 answers
103 answers
93 answers
58 answers
55 answers
41 answers
38 answers
37 answers
36 answers
32 answers
29 answers
27 answers
26 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
18 answers
16 answers
16 answers
16 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

M3A1L1A1R1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing MALAR

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing MALAR:

22% chance
Suggested:
SIENT
13% chance
Suggested:
TOISE
9% chance
Suggested:
TOISE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

21.7% →
SIENT 6.24 bits
13.1% →
TOISE 5.64 bits
9.0% →
TOISE 5.11 bits
5.7% →
STANE 5.41 bits
4.9% →
CONTE 4.72 bits
4.8% →
TRACE 4.62 bits
4.3% →
TOISE 3.94 bits
3.9% →
STANE 4.66 bits
2.4% →
HOISE 4.73 bits
2.3% →
TOILE 4.32 bits

Research on MALAR

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

Optimal play

Opening with MALAR, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses and ranks #8,499 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 MALAR can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.73, at or below the proven-optimal 3.76, 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
MALAR 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).