NOVEL
Yes, NOVEL was the Wordle answer on July 9, 2025 (Wordle #1481).
As an opener, it rules out about 93.3% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈnɒvəl/[ˈnɒvɫ̩]/ˈnɑvəl/
- Adjective
-
Newly made, formed or evolved; having no precedent; of recent origin; new.
- Adjective
-
Original, especially in an interesting way; new and striking; not of the typical or ordinary type.
- Noun
-
A work of prose fiction, longer than a novella.
- Noun
-
A fable; a short tale, especially one of many making up a larger work.
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: July 9, 2025 (#1481).
See the full page for that puzzle: July 9, 2025 (#1481).
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 NOVEL performs as a guess
NOVEL 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 83.9% of games, misses completely in 16.1%, and leaves about 160 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,930 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.68 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 NOVEL 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 NOVEL 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 NOVEL in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
NOVEL can come back 104 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 NOVEL; 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 NOVEL
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to NOVEL.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing NOVEL:
Research on NOVEL
Game-tree analysis and word research for NOVEL, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with NOVEL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,689 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.84 guesses at best and is rank #2,663 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.68, at or below the proven-optimal 3.71, 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 NAHVUHL.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, NOVEL is a kind of fiction or book.
Synonyms new FRESH refreshing original
Opposites old
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- NOVEL sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 43 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 9, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 64 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.3 of 5).
In a sentence
This is his first novel.
This was her first novel.
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).