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

METEL

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

No dictionary definition for METEL is recorded in our sourced data.

As an opener, it rules out about 92.3% of possible answers.

Open Solver with METEL Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

We do not have a sourced definition for this word yet.

Check METEL on Wiktionary or report a missing entry.

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 METEL performs as a guess

Wordle accepts METEL 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 80.3% of games, misses completely in 19.7%, and leaves about 182 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,459 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.
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__E_ M in the 1st position and E 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 METEL.

First-turn measures

All four describe METEL 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.

4.68 Entropy (bits)
182 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 64% of evaluated openers
1.27 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How METEL 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
99.87% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#7,459 Rank among openers
Opening with METEL left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.71 average. It ranks #7,459 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
67
3 guesses
831
4 guesses
1,188
5 guesses
245
6 guesses
20
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:
ELT

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
80%
Green tile
33%
All gray
20%

Feedback distribution

METEL can come back 100 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

468 answers
252 answers
226 answers
200 answers
120 answers
94 answers
82 answers
73 answers
70 answers
59 answers
49 answers
46 answers
45 answers
36 answers
31 answers
29 answers
27 answers
25 answers
23 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
12 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
10 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

M3E1T1E1L1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Try next

SONAR ROAST ARISE SAUCY PRASE BLASE

Strategy after playing METEL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing METEL:

20% chance
Suggested:
SONAR
11% chance
Suggested:
ROAST
10% chance
Suggested:
ARISE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

19.7% →
SONAR 5.76 bits
10.6% →
ROAST 5.48 bits
9.5% →
ARISE 5.24 bits
8.4% →
SAUCY 4.95 bits
5.1% →
SONAR 4.53 bits
4.0% →
PRASE 4.76 bits
3.5% →
BLASE 4.47 bits
3.1% →
COMMA 4.83 bits
2.9% →
SONAR 4.56 bits
2.5% →
RAINY 4.49 bits

Research on METEL

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

Optimal play

Opening with METEL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #4,395 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.82 guesses at best and is rank #1,840 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.71; proven optimal play reaches 3.69. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.

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. Estimated pronunciation

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

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
METEL sits in the rare band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word few players will have met in print.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model; Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).