5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess B tier for first-turn info

METAL

Yes, METAL was the Wordle answer on May 14, 2022 (Wordle #329).

As an opener, it rules out about 95.2% of possible answers.

Open Solver with METAL Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈmɛ.təl/

Noun

Chemical elements or alloys, their ores, and the mines where their ores come from.

Noun

A light tincture used in a coat of arms, specifically argent (white or silver) and or (gold).

Adjective

Characterized by strong drum-beats and distorted guitars.

Adjective

Having the emotional or social characteristics associated with metal music; brash, bold, frank, unyielding, 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

Yes

Included in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.

Possible answer

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

Past Wordle answer

Used once

Past Wordle answer: May 14, 2022 (#329).

See the full page for that puzzle: May 14, 2022 (#329).

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

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How METAL performs as a guess

METAL 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 88.8% of games, misses completely in 11.2%, and leaves about 114 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,575 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.61 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.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

M___L M in the 1st position and L in the 5th position M__A_ M in the 1st position and A in the 4th position _E__L E in the 2nd position and L in the 5th position

Explore lists that match the beginning, ending or letters in METAL.

First-turn measures

All four describe METAL 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.

5.24 Entropy (bits)
114 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
95.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 93% of evaluated openers
0.70 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How METAL 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.

3.61 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#1,575 Rank among openers
Opening with METAL left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.61 average. It ranks #1,575 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
85
3 guesses
948
4 guesses
1,128
5 guesses
173
6 guesses
17
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

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AELT

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
89%
Green tile
27%
All gray
11%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S P L A T
F E T A L
M E T A L

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches METAL in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

METAL can come back 120 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

268 answers
265 answers
177 answers
156 answers
121 answers
105 answers
88 answers
87 answers
76 answers
73 answers
69 answers
44 answers
40 answers
39 answers
28 answers
28 answers
28 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
17 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

M3E1T1A1L1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Try next

IRONE IRONY CAIRN SHOUT COULD SARGE

Strategy after playing METAL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing METAL:

11% chance
Suggested:
IRONE
11% chance
Suggested:
IRONY
7% chance
Suggested:
CAIRN

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

11.3% →
IRONE 5.24 bits
11.2% →
IRONY 5.57 bits
7.5% →
CAIRN 5.21 bits
6.6% →
SHOUT 5.36 bits
5.1% →
COULD 4.82 bits
4.4% →
SARGE 4.48 bits
3.7% →
SAINT 4.57 bits
3.7% →
SIREE 5.03 bits
3.2% →
DENSE 4.34 bits
3.1% →
BIOSE 4.35 bits

Research on METAL

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

Optimal play

Opening with METAL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.63 guesses and ranks #888 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 METAL can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.61, at or below the proven-optimal 3.63, 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 MEHTUHL.

Rhymes with PETAL BETEL

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, METAL is a kind of element or mixture.

Synonyms metallic ALLOY gold silver golden bronze

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
METAL sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 66 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A2); among the first words English learners study.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 82 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.4 of 5).

In a sentence

All this metal is bad.
© tatoeba.org contributor Amastan (CC BY 2.0 FR)
I have a metal table.
© tatoeba.org contributor lukaszpp (CC BY 2.0 FR)

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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).