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

PILEY

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

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

As an opener, it rules out about 93.7% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

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

Check PILEY on Wiktionary or report a missing entry.

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 PILEY performs as a guess

Wordle accepts PILEY 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 84.9% of games, misses completely in 15.1%, and leaves about 149 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,624 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.65 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 PILEY 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.

4.93 Entropy (bits)
149 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
93.7% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 80% of evaluated openers
1.01 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How PILEY 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.

3.65 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#3,624 Rank among openers
Opening with PILEY left 1 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 3.65 average. It ranks #3,624 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
69
3 guesses
937
4 guesses
1,123
5 guesses
203
6 guesses
21
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:
EIL

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
85%
Green tile
40%
All gray
15%

Feedback distribution

PILEY can come back 112 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

358 answers
310 answers
156 answers
148 answers
145 answers
138 answers
104 answers
88 answers
65 answers
60 answers
51 answers
50 answers
38 answers
35 answers
31 answers
26 answers
24 answers
22 answers
22 answers
21 answers
21 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
14 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

P3I1L1E1Y4
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing PILEY

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing PILEY:

15% chance
Suggested:
COURT
13% chance
Suggested:
ROAST
7% chance
Suggested:
TRAIN

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

15.1%
COURT 6.16 bits
13.1%
ROAST 5.68 bits
6.6%
TRAIN 5.47 bits
6.2%
ROAST 4.70 bits
6.1%
COAST 5.21 bits
5.8%
ROAST 4.65 bits
4.4%
BLATE 4.65 bits
3.7%
TRINE 4.67 bits
2.7%
SLART 4.30 bits
2.5%
ROAST 4.46 bits

Research on PILEY

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

Optimal play

Opening with PILEY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.65 guesses and ranks #1,925 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 PILEY can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, at or below the proven-optimal 3.65, 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 PYLEE. Estimated pronunciation

This pronunciation is machine-estimated, not taken from a pronunciation dictionary.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model.