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

ROILY

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

As an opener, it rules out about 94.9% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Adjective

muddy, cloudy (having lots of sediment)

Adjective

turbulent

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 ROILY performs as a guess

Wordle accepts ROILY 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 87.6% of games, misses completely in 12.4%, and leaves about 121 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,295 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.64 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 ROILY 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.

5.07 Entropy (bits)
121 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
94.9% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 86% of evaluated openers
0.88 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ROILY 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.

3.64 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#3,295 Rank among openers
Opening with ROILY solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.64 average. It ranks #3,295 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
60
3 guesses
972
4 guesses
1,099
5 guesses
197
6 guesses
26
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:
ILOR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
88%
Green tile
41%
All gray
12%

Feedback distribution

ROILY can come back 106 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

295 answers
264 answers
178 answers
128 answers
122 answers
109 answers
109 answers
83 answers
75 answers
63 answers
60 answers
58 answers
53 answers
51 answers
51 answers
39 answers
37 answers
37 answers
34 answers
32 answers
28 answers
28 answers
26 answers
23 answers
22 answers
19 answers
19 answers
15 answers
13 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

R1O1I1L1Y4
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Strategy after playing ROILY

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ROILY:

12% chance
Suggested:
STANE
11% chance
Suggested:
TEASE
7% chance
Suggested:
CASTE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.4%
STANE 6.18 bits
11.1%
TEASE 5.54 bits
7.5%
CASTE 5.24 bits
5.4%
CASTE 5.12 bits
5.1%
TRACE 4.47 bits
4.6%
DANSE 4.68 bits
4.6%
STANE 5.14 bits
3.5%
STANE 5.14 bits
3.2%
CASTE 4.43 bits
2.7%
PRATE 4.26 bits

Research on ROILY

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

Optimal play

Opening with ROILY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.68 guesses and ranks #3,524 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 ROILY can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, at or below the proven-optimal 3.68, 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 ROYLEE. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

Synonyms turbulent churning agitated

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).