PALED
PALED is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.
As an opener, it rules out about 94.7% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /peɪld/
- Verb
-
simple past and past participle of pale
- Adjective
-
Striped.
- Adjective
-
Enclosed with a paling.
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
NoThe solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.
Past Wordle answer
Not used yetNo past answer date found.
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 PALED performs as a guess
Wordle accepts PALED 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 84.8% of games, misses completely in 15.2%, and leaves about 127 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,342 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.61 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 PALED 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 PALED 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
Feedback distribution
PALED can come back 120 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 PALED; 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 PALED
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to PALED.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing PALED:
Research on PALED
Game-tree analysis and word research for PALED, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with PALED, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.61 guesses and ranks #290 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 PALED can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.61, at or below the proven-optimal 3.61, 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
One syllable Say it PAYLD.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, PALED is a kind of friend or bond.
Synonyms sick BUDDY wan picket sidekick LIGHT
Opposites full strong dark colorful
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- PALED 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 (4.1 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).