5 FiveLetterWords
Possible answer Not used yet B tier opener

PENAL

PENAL is on the solver's possible-answer list but has not appeared as a Wordle answer yet.

As an opener, it rules out about 95.2% of possible answers.

Open Solver with PENAL Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈpiːnəl/

Adjective

Of or relating to punishment.

“penal servitude”

Adjective

Subject to punishment; punishable.

“a penal offence”

Alternative forms: pænal, pænall, penall, pœnal

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

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 PENAL performs as a guess

PENAL is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,358 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 87.5% of games, misses completely in 12.5%, and leaves about 114 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete v5 benchmark, it ranks #785 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.

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__A_ P in the 1st position and A in the 4th position _E__L E in the 2nd position and L in the 5th position

Try next

SHORT TRODE SMART TARSE COULD IRONY
Words starting with P Words ending with L

First-turn measures

5.26 Entropy (bits)
114 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
95.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 94% of evaluated openers
0.69 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opener: v5 benchmark

How PENAL 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
99.9% Win rate
0.69 Volatility
#785 v5 opener rank
In the complete v5 snapshot, PENAL ranks #785 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
87
3 guesses
953
4 guesses
1,151
5 guesses
147
6 guesses
13
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.45 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AELN

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
88%
Green tile
30%
All gray
12%

Example solver route

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

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches PENAL in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

120 possible patterns. Top outcomes:

295
236
204
122
114
102
81
76
75
67
66
47
46
40
39
29
29
27
26
25
25
25
25
25
25
23
21
21
20
20

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing PENAL:

13% chance
Suggested:
SHORT
10% chance
Suggested:
TRODE
9% chance
Suggested:
SMART

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.5% →
SHORT 6.03 bits
10.0% →
TRODE 5.31 bits
8.7% →
SMART 5.11 bits
5.2% →
TARSE 4.60 bits
4.8% →
COULD 4.88 bits
4.3% →
IRONY 4.87 bits
3.4% →
TERSE 4.53 bits
3.2% →
TOISE 4.46 bits
3.2% →
TOISE 4.65 bits
2.8% →
SLATY 4.03 bits

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

P3E1N1A1L1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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