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

METOL

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

As an opener, it rules out about 94.9% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

The sulphate of 4-methylaminophenol, used as a photographic developer

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 METOL performs as a guess

Wordle accepts METOL 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 88.3% of games, misses completely in 11.7%, and leaves about 121 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,463 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.63 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 METOL 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.

5.08 Entropy (bits)
121 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
94.9% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 87% of evaluated openers
0.86 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How METOL 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.

3.63 Avg guesses
99.83% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#2,463 Rank among openers
Opening with METOL left 4 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 3.63 average. It ranks #2,463 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
79
3 guesses
938
4 guesses
1,128
5 guesses
189
6 guesses
16
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:
ELOT

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
88%
Green tile
28%
All gray
12%

Feedback distribution

METOL can come back 115 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

278 answers
277 answers
154 answers
137 answers
131 answers
115 answers
107 answers
100 answers
99 answers
81 answers
54 answers
53 answers
49 answers
44 answers
38 answers
33 answers
32 answers
30 answers
30 answers
29 answers
28 answers
26 answers
22 answers
21 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

M3E1T1O1L1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing METOL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing METOL:

12% chance
Suggested:
CAIRN
12% chance
Suggested:
ARISE
6% chance
Suggested:
SAINT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

11.7%
CAIRN 5.86 bits
11.7%
ARISE 5.43 bits
6.5%
SAINT 5.61 bits
5.8%
CRONY 5.08 bits
5.5%
SAUCY 5.09 bits
4.8%
SAREE 4.93 bits
4.5%
DORSE 4.47 bits
4.2%
RAILE 4.58 bits
4.2%
RANSE 4.64 bits
3.4%
SHART 4.54 bits

Research on METOL

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

Optimal play

Opening with METOL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.64 guesses and ranks #1,352 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.74 guesses at best and is rank #226 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.63, at or below the proven-optimal 3.64, 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. 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.