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

MALAX

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Verb

To malaxate.

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

Use MALAX in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 81.6% 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 MALAX performs as a guess

Wordle accepts MALAX 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 61.6% of games, misses completely in 38.4%, and leaves about 439 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,949 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.90 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 MALAX 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.

3.48 Entropy (bits)
439 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
81.6% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How MALAX 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.

3.90 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#13,949 Rank among openers
Opening with MALAX 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 3.90 average. It ranks #13,949 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
37
3 guesses
618
4 guesses
1,280
5 guesses
383
6 guesses
33

Composition

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AL

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
62%
Green tile
26%
All gray
38%

Feedback distribution

MALAX can come back 62 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

916 answers
266 answers
256 answers
181 answers
110 answers
90 answers
64 answers
59 answers
56 answers
49 answers
40 answers
36 answers
25 answers
25 answers
21 answers
21 answers
14 answers
14 answers
10 answers
9 answers
9 answers
9 answers
8 answers
6 answers
6 answers
5 answers
5 answers
5 answers
5 answers
5 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

M3A1L1A1X8
Total: 14 points

Words With Friends

Total: 16 points

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

Strategy after playing MALAX

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing MALAX:

38% chance
Suggested:
TRONE
11% chance
Suggested:
SLIER
11% chance
Suggested:
STARE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

38.4% →
TRONE 6.15 bits
11.2% →
SLIER 5.06 bits
10.7% →
STARE 5.48 bits
7.6% →
TRINE 4.92 bits
4.6% →
SLANE 4.52 bits
3.8% →
POIRE 5.18 bits
2.7% →
SETER 4.46 bits
2.5% →
TOILE 4.34 bits
2.3% →
RIONE 4.62 bits
2.1% →
CRUET 4.14 bits

Research on MALAX

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

Optimal play

Opening with MALAX, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.90 guesses and ranks #13,837 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 4.02 guesses at best and is rank #6,458 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.90, at or below the proven-optimal 3.90, 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT).