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

OILER

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

As an opener, it rules out about 96.4% of possible answers.

Open Solver with OILER Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈɔɪlɚ//ˈɔɪlə/

Noun

One who or that which oils.

Noun

An oil tanker.

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 OILER performs as a guess

Wordle accepts OILER 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 92.0% of games, misses completely in 8.0%, and leaves about 86 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,430 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.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

O___R O in the 1st position and R in the 5th position O__E_ O in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _I__R I in the 2nd position and R in the 5th position

Explore lists that match the beginning, ending or letters in OILER.

First-turn measures

All four describe OILER 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.

5.41 Entropy (bits)
86 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
96.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 97% of evaluated openers
0.53 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How OILER 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
99.92% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#2,430 Rank among openers
Opening with OILER left 2 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 #2,430 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
76
3 guesses
951
4 guesses
1,123
5 guesses
178
6 guesses
24
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
3 vowels
Common:
EILOR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
92%
Green tile
28%
All gray
8%

Feedback distribution

OILER can come back 110 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

190 answers
177 answers
152 answers
126 answers
125 answers
105 answers
102 answers
101 answers
99 answers
66 answers
65 answers
65 answers
63 answers
60 answers
54 answers
52 answers
47 answers
41 answers
33 answers
32 answers
29 answers
26 answers
24 answers
24 answers
23 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
19 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

O1I1L1E1R1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 6 points

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

Try next

SCANT TEASE SAUNT SMART COAST SCALP

Strategy after playing OILER

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing OILER:

8% chance
Suggested:
SCANT
7% chance
Suggested:
TEASE
6% chance
Suggested:
SAUNT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

8.0% →
SCANT 5.51 bits
7.5% →
TEASE 5.50 bits
6.4% →
SAUNT 5.04 bits
5.3% →
SMART 4.99 bits
5.3% →
TEASE 4.79 bits
4.4% →
COAST 4.41 bits
4.3% →
SCALP 4.73 bits
4.3% →
PLATE 4.73 bits
4.2% →
SAINT 5.38 bits
2.8% →
SAINT 4.62 bits

Research on OILER

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

Optimal play

Opening with OILER, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.64 guesses and ranks #1,369 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 OILER can 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 OYLUR.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, OILER is a kind of worker or well.

Synonyms tanker

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
OILER sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.5 of 5).

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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).