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

MESEL

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Adjective

Synonym of leprous: having leprosy or a similar skin disorder.

Adjective

Synonym of wretched.

Noun

Synonym of leper.

Noun

A repulsive person.

Alternative forms: mesyl, mesell, mesall, messel

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

Etymology

From Middle English mesel (“leprous, leper”), from Norman mesel (“leprous, leper”), from Old French mesel (“leprous, leper”), from Late Latin misellus (“leper”), from miser (“wretched, wretch”) + -ellus (“-elle”). Doublet of measles.

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

Use MESEL in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 91.8% 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 MESEL performs as a guess

Wordle accepts MESEL 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 78.1% of games, misses completely in 21.9%, and leaves about 194 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,204 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.71 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 MESEL 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.

4.62 Entropy (bits)
194 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
91.8% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How MESEL 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.

3.71 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#7,204 Rank among openers
Opening with MESEL left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.71 average. It ranks #7,204 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
55
3 guesses
834
4 guesses
1,228
5 guesses
217
6 guesses
18

Composition

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ELS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
78%
Green tile
33%
All gray
22%

Feedback distribution

MESEL can come back 92 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

522 answers
212 answers
209 answers
186 answers
127 answers
109 answers
84 answers
84 answers
67 answers
65 answers
62 answers
50 answers
36 answers
32 answers
29 answers
28 answers
26 answers
26 answers
23 answers
23 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

M3E1S1E1L1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing MESEL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing MESEL:

22% chance
Suggested:
TRAIN
9% chance
Suggested:
ROAST
9% chance
Suggested:
ORATE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

21.9% →
TRAIN 6.10 bits
8.9% →
ROAST 5.28 bits
8.8% →
ORATE 5.15 bits
7.8% →
COALY 4.81 bits
5.3% →
RAINY 4.25 bits
4.6% →
ROAST 4.68 bits
3.5% →
BAILE 4.51 bits
3.5% →
RAINY 4.49 bits
2.8% →
TRIAL 4.36 bits
2.7% →
PRIMO 4.52 bits

Research on MESEL

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

Optimal play

Opening with MESEL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.72 guesses and ranks #6,296 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 MESEL can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.71, 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.

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