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

ORIEL

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈɔːɹiəl/

Noun

A large polygonal recess in a building, such as a bay window, forming a protrusion on the outer wall.

Noun

A small apartment next to a hall, used for dining.

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Etymology

From Middle English oriel, from Old French oriol (“gallery, corridor”), Late Latin oriolum (“portico, hall”), probably from Latin aureolus (“gilded”), applied to an apartment decorated with gilding. See oriole. Or a diminutive of Latin os (“mouth”).

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

Use ORIEL in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 96.7% of possible answers.

Open Solver with ORIEL Open Word Finder

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

No completed appearance

No appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

How ORIEL performs as a guess

Wordle accepts ORIEL 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 91.9% of games, misses completely in 8.1%, and leaves about 80 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,289 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.62 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___L O in the 1st position and L in the 5th position O__E_ O in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _R__L R in the 2nd position and L in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe ORIEL 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.

5.54 Entropy (bits)
80 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
96.7% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ORIEL 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.

3.62 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#2,289 Rank among openers
Opening with ORIEL left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.62 average. It ranks #2,289 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
71
3 guesses
977
4 guesses
1,089
5 guesses
191
6 guesses
23

Composition

5/5 unique
3 vowels
Common:
EILOR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
92%
Green tile
37%
All gray
8%

Feedback distribution

ORIEL can come back 111 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

193 answers
179 answers
152 answers
113 answers
107 answers
102 answers
86 answers
85 answers
79 answers
78 answers
65 answers
54 answers
53 answers
51 answers
50 answers
47 answers
43 answers
43 answers
42 answers
34 answers
32 answers
30 answers
30 answers
28 answers
26 answers
26 answers
24 answers
24 answers
20 answers
19 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

O1R1I1E1L1
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 SATIN SCALP STALE

Strategy after playing ORIEL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ORIEL:

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

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

8.1% →
SCANT 5.51 bits
7.5% →
TEASE 5.51 bits
6.4% →
SAUNT 5.04 bits
4.7% →
SATIN 4.89 bits
4.5% →
SCALP 4.85 bits
4.3% →
STALE 4.73 bits
3.6% →
SAUNT 4.46 bits
3.6% →
STARE 4.40 bits
3.3% →
SAUNT 3.91 bits
3.3% →
SHART 4.74 bits

Research on ORIEL

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

Optimal play

Opening with ORIEL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.64 guesses and ranks #1,133 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 ORIEL can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.62, 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
ORIEL 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).