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

PAALS

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

No dictionary definition for PAALS is recorded in our sourced data.

Meaning and pronunciation

We do not have a sourced definition for this word yet.

Check PAALS on Wiktionary or report a missing entry.

Use PAALS in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 89.8% of possible answers.

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 PAALS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts PAALS 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 73.4% of games, misses completely in 26.6%, and leaves about 242 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,685 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.

All gray? Tap a tile to cycle gray → yellow → green.

First-turn measures

All four describe PAALS 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.

4.41 Entropy (bits)
242 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
89.8% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How PAALS 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.

3.70 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#6,685 Rank among openers
Opening with PAALS left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.70 average. It ranks #6,685 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
47
3 guesses
858
4 guesses
1,225
5 guesses
207
6 guesses
16

Composition

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ALS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
73%
Green tile
37%
All gray
27%

Feedback distribution

PAALS can come back 88 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

633 answers
243 answers
181 answers
150 answers
122 answers
102 answers
81 answers
79 answers
64 answers
64 answers
56 answers
52 answers
41 answers
35 answers
33 answers
32 answers
30 answers
21 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

P3A1A1L1S1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing PAALS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing PAALS:

27% chance
Suggested:
TONER
10% chance
Suggested:
ROUET
8% chance
Suggested:
NOIRE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

26.6% →
TONER 6.15 bits
10.2% →
ROUET 5.63 bits
7.6% →
NOIRE 5.02 bits
6.3% →
RONTE 4.95 bits
5.1% →
DRONE 5.38 bits
4.3% →
DRICE 5.02 bits
3.4% →
RONTE 4.40 bits
3.3% →
URITE 4.42 bits
2.7% →
CRUET 4.29 bits
2.7% →
RIONE 4.97 bits

Research on PAALS

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

Optimal play

Opening with PAALS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.74 guesses and ranks #7,702 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.87 guesses at best and is rank #3,339 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.70, at or below the proven-optimal 3.74, 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT).