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

MEDLE

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

As an opener, it rules out about 89.7% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Verb

Obsolete form of meddle.

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 MEDLE performs as a guess

Wordle accepts MEDLE 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 73.3% of games, misses completely in 26.7%, and leaves about 244 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,040 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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 MEDLE 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.

4.44 Entropy (bits)
244 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
89.7% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 48% of evaluated openers
1.50 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How MEDLE 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.

3.69 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#6,040 Rank among openers
Opening with MEDLE left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.69 average. It ranks #6,040 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
71
3 guesses
823
4 guesses
1,244
5 guesses
201
6 guesses
13
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

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
EL

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
73%
Green tile
37%
All gray
27%

Feedback distribution

MEDLE can come back 97 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

633 answers
226 answers
199 answers
196 answers
109 answers
80 answers
73 answers
70 answers
68 answers
57 answers
44 answers
33 answers
33 answers
29 answers
29 answers
28 answers
27 answers
24 answers
24 answers
21 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
15 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

M3E1D2L1E1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing MEDLE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing MEDLE:

27% chance
Suggested:
SAINT
10% chance
Suggested:
SONAR
8% chance
Suggested:
ROAST

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

26.7%
SAINT 6.18 bits
9.5%
SONAR 5.20 bits
8.4%
ROAST 5.26 bits
8.3%
ROAST 5.10 bits
4.6%
DRAIN 5.25 bits
3.4%
ROAST 5.01 bits
3.1%
SHART 4.80 bits
2.9%
STAIR 4.06 bits
2.9%
LATER 4.25 bits
2.4%
ROANY 4.39 bits

Research on MEDLE

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

Optimal play

Opening with MEDLE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.72 guesses and ranks #6,008 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 MEDLE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, at or below the proven-optimal 3.72, 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 MEHDUHL. Estimated pronunciation

This pronunciation is machine-estimated, not taken from a pronunciation dictionary.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model.