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

POLER

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

As an opener, it rules out about 95.4% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈpəʊlə(ɹ)/

Noun

One who propels a boat using a pole.

Noun

A horse harnessed alongside the shaft or pole of a vehicle.

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 POLER performs as a guess

Wordle accepts POLER 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 87.7% of games, misses completely in 12.3%, and leaves about 109 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #588 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.

First-turn measures

All four describe POLER 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.

5.30 Entropy (bits)
109 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
95.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 95% of evaluated openers
0.65 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How POLER 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
100% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#588 Rank among openers
Opening with POLER solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.59 average. It ranks #588 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
67
3 guesses
1,030
4 guesses
1,082
5 guesses
158
6 guesses
17
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:
ELOR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
88%
Green tile
34%
All gray
12%

Feedback distribution

POLER can come back 116 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

291 answers
222 answers
156 answers
140 answers
139 answers
109 answers
92 answers
83 answers
78 answers
71 answers
49 answers
44 answers
43 answers
37 answers
36 answers
36 answers
36 answers
30 answers
30 answers
28 answers
26 answers
25 answers
25 answers
24 answers
24 answers
22 answers
20 answers
18 answers
16 answers
15 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

P3O1L1E1R1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing POLER

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing POLER:

12% chance
Suggested:
SAINT
9% chance
Suggested:
SAINT
7% chance
Suggested:
SAINT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.3%
SAINT 6.12 bits
9.4%
SAINT 5.51 bits
6.6%
SAINT 5.26 bits
5.9%
SAINT 5.22 bits
5.9%
TEASE 4.76 bits
4.6%
SLATE 4.78 bits
3.9%
SAUNT 4.30 bits
3.5%
SAINT 5.12 bits
3.3%
SAINT 4.00 bits
3.0%
SAINT 4.41 bits

Research on POLER

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

Optimal play

Opening with POLER, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.61 guesses and ranks #311 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 POLER can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.59, 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

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it POHLUR. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, POLER is a kind of horse.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model; Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0).