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

PAEAN

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

As an opener, it rules out about 92.2% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈpiː.ən//ˈpi.ən/

Noun

Any loud and joyous song; a song of triumph.

Noun

An enthusiastic expression of praise.

Verb

To sing a paean; to praise.

Alternative forms: pæan, pean

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 PAEAN performs as a guess

Wordle accepts PAEAN 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 81.7% of games, misses completely in 18.3%, and leaves about 185 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,542 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.73 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 PAEAN 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.

4.62 Entropy (bits)
185 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 60% of evaluated openers
1.33 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How PAEAN 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.

3.73 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#8,542 Rank among openers
Opening with PAEAN 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 3.73 average. It ranks #8,542 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
60
3 guesses
813
4 guesses
1,201
5 guesses
254
6 guesses
23
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

4/5 unique
3 vowels
Common:
AEN

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
34%
All gray
18%

Feedback distribution

PAEAN can come back 91 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

435 answers
360 answers
164 answers
147 answers
130 answers
103 answers
100 answers
85 answers
77 answers
65 answers
48 answers
45 answers
43 answers
38 answers
33 answers
32 answers
32 answers
29 answers
28 answers
21 answers
21 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
13 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

P3A1E1A1N1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing PAEAN

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing PAEAN:

18% chance
Suggested:
COURT
15% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
7% chance
Suggested:
SLART

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

18.3%
COURT 5.82 bits
15.2%
TOILE 5.24 bits
6.9%
SLART 5.23 bits
6.2%
COUNT 5.04 bits
5.5%
SLART 4.99 bits
4.3%
SATYR 4.01 bits
4.2%
SIREE 4.65 bits
3.6%
SETER 4.74 bits
3.2%
LATER 3.97 bits
2.7%
SOILY 4.78 bits

Research on PAEAN

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

Optimal play

Opening with PAEAN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses and ranks #8,478 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 PAEAN can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.73, at or below the proven-optimal 3.76, 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 PEEUHN.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, PAEAN is a kind of congratulations or anthem.

Synonyms eulogy

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
PAEAN 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.

In a sentence

This is a precise and poetic paean to the peregrine.
© tatoeba.org contributor xmoffx (CC BY 2.0 FR)

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).