NAVEL
Yes, NAVEL was the Wordle answer on March 8, 2025 (Wordle #1358).
As an opener, it rules out about 94.2% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈneɪvəl//ˈneɪbəl/
- Noun
-
The indentation or bump remaining in the abdomen of placental mammals where the umbilical cord was attached before birth.
- Noun
-
The central part or point of anything; the middle.
- Verb
-
To be in the middle of a landscape.
Alternative forms: navil
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
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Used oncePast Wordle answer: March 8, 2025 (#1358).
See the full page for that puzzle: March 8, 2025 (#1358).
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →How NAVEL performs as a guess
NAVEL 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 85.0% of games, misses completely in 15.0%, and leaves about 137 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,139 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.70 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe NAVEL 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How NAVEL 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches NAVEL in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
NAVEL can come back 106 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for NAVEL; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing NAVEL
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to NAVEL.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing NAVEL:
Research on NAVEL
Game-tree analysis and word research for NAVEL, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with NAVEL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #4,593 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 NAVEL can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.70; proven optimal play reaches 3.70. 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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, NAVEL is a kind of point or center.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- NAVEL sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 9, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 78 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.9 of 5).
In a sentence
Is the pain above or below the navel?
The hen doesn't have a navel.
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); Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).