5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess B tier for first-turn info

PANEL

Yes, PANEL was the Wordle answer on August 24, 2021 (Wordle #66).

As an opener, it rules out about 95.7% of possible answers.

Open Solver with PANEL Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈpænəl/[ˈpæn.ɫ̩][ˈpɛən.əl]

Noun

A (usually) rectangular section of a surface, or of a covering or of a wall, fence etc.

“Behind the picture was a panel on the wall.”

Noun

A group of people gathered to judge, interview, discuss etc. as on a television or radio broadcast for example.

“Today’s panel includes John Smith.”

Verb

To fit (a room etc.) with panels.

Verb

To enter (jury members) on an official list of jurors; to empanel.

Alternative forms: pannel

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

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

Past Wordle answer

Used once

Past Wordle answer: August 24, 2021 (#66).

See the full page for that puzzle: August 24, 2021 (#66).

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

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How PANEL performs as a guess

PANEL is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,374 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 87.6% of games, misses completely in 12.4%, and leaves about 103 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #624 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.59 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.

P___L P in the 1st position and L in the 5th position P__E_ P in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _A__L A in the 2nd position and L in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe PANEL 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.

5.38 Entropy (bits)
103 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
95.7% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 97% of evaluated openers
0.57 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How PANEL 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.

3.59 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#624 Rank among openers
Opening with PANEL left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.59 average. It ranks #624 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
87
3 guesses
974
4 guesses
1,124
5 guesses
150
6 guesses
16
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
2 vowels
Common:
AELN

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
88%
Green tile
37%
All gray
12%

Example solver route

R O A T E
L A D E N
N A V E L
P A N E L

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches PANEL in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

PANEL can come back 128 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

295 answers
205 answers
142 answers
123 answers
115 answers
114 answers
103 answers
89 answers
74 answers
60 answers
54 answers
49 answers
47 answers
46 answers
41 answers
39 answers
35 answers
29 answers
28 answers
27 answers
27 answers
26 answers
26 answers
25 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

P3A1N1E1L1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Try next

SHORT TORSE TRASH REAST TRODE COULD

Strategy after playing PANEL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing PANEL:

12% chance
Suggested:
SHORT
9% chance
Suggested:
TORSE
6% chance
Suggested:
TRASH

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.4% →
SHORT 6.03 bits
8.6% →
TORSE 5.37 bits
6.0% →
TRASH 5.16 bits
5.2% →
REAST 4.87 bits
4.8% →
TRODE 4.09 bits
4.8% →
COULD 4.88 bits
4.3% →
IRONY 4.87 bits
3.7% →
SATYR 3.98 bits
3.1% →
TOILE 4.39 bits
2.5% →
SEINE 4.65 bits

Research on PANEL

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

Optimal play

Opening with PANEL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.59 guesses and ranks #92 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 PANEL can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.59, at or below the proven-optimal 3.59, 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 PANUHL.

Rhymes with ANNUL ANNAL

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, PANEL is a kind of sheet or committee.

Synonyms BOARD jury gore

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
PANEL sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 35 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.6 of 5).

In a sentence

The panel had a corner missing.
© tatoeba.org contributor Amastan (CC BY 2.0 FR)
A panel of experts discussed the plan.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (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); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).