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

MOILS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 93.5% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of moil

Verb

third-person singular simple present indicative of moil

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 MOILS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts MOILS 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 82.1% of games, misses completely in 17.9%, and leaves about 155 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,144 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.60 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 MOILS 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.

4.85 Entropy (bits)
155 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
93.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 75% of evaluated openers
1.09 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How MOILS 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.

3.60 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#1,144 Rank among openers
Opening with MOILS left 1 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 3.60 average. It ranks #1,144 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
65
3 guesses
1,017
4 guesses
1,071
5 guesses
188
6 guesses
12
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:
ILOS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
32%
All gray
18%

Feedback distribution

MOILS can come back 101 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

424 answers
221 answers
176 answers
164 answers
153 answers
123 answers
105 answers
64 answers
58 answers
55 answers
52 answers
51 answers
50 answers
48 answers
42 answers
32 answers
31 answers
31 answers
29 answers
29 answers
24 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
14 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

M3O1I1L1S1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing MOILS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing MOILS:

18% chance
Suggested:
TRACE
9% chance
Suggested:
STARE
7% chance
Suggested:
RANCE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.9%
TRACE 6.30 bits
9.3%
STARE 5.69 bits
7.4%
RANCE 5.31 bits
6.9%
CADET 5.16 bits
6.4%
CRANE 5.38 bits
5.2%
TRUCE 4.60 bits
4.4%
CRATE 5.09 bits
2.7%
PEART 4.27 bits
2.4%
TIARE 4.47 bits
2.3%
FARCE 4.06 bits

Research on MOILS

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

Optimal play

Opening with MOILS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #2,381 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.78 guesses at best and is rank #927 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.60, at or below the proven-optimal 3.66, 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

One syllable Say it MOYLZ. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, MOILS is a kind of work or move.

Synonyms LABOR labour dig GRIND boil fag

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 relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0).