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

ROYAL

Yes, ROYAL was the Wordle answer on April 12, 2022 (Wordle #297).

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

Open Solver with ROYAL Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈɹɔɪ̯.əl/[ˈɹʷɔɪ̯.əl] ~ [ˈɹʷɔɪ̯.l̩]/ˈɹɔ.jəl/

Adjective

Of or relating to a monarch or his (or her) family.

Adjective

Having the air or demeanour of a monarch; illustrious; magnanimous; of more than common size or excellence.

Noun

A royal person; a member of a royal family.

Noun

A standard size of printing paper, measuring 25 by 20 inches.

Alternative forms: r., roial, roiall, royall

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: April 12, 2022 (#297).

See the full page for that puzzle: April 12, 2022 (#297).

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

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How ROYAL performs as a guess

ROYAL 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 88.8% of games, misses completely in 11.2%, and leaves about 115 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,495 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.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

R___L R in the 1st position and L in the 5th position R__A_ R in the 1st position and A in the 4th position _O__L O in the 2nd position and L in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe ROYAL 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.

5.12 Entropy (bits)
115 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
95.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 89% of evaluated openers
0.83 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ROYAL 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
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#3,495 Rank among openers
Opening with ROYAL solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.64 average. It ranks #3,495 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
67
3 guesses
939
4 guesses
1,124
5 guesses
206
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:
ALOR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
89%
Green tile
26%
All gray
11%

Example solver route

R O A T E
R O Y A L

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches ROYAL in 2 guesses.

Feedback distribution

ROYAL can come back 111 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

267 answers
214 answers
211 answers
141 answers
131 answers
109 answers
106 answers
104 answers
103 answers
84 answers
58 answers
45 answers
44 answers
41 answers
36 answers
35 answers
35 answers
30 answers
29 answers
28 answers
28 answers
27 answers
27 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
19 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

R1O1Y4A1L1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Try next

SIENT SPITE STANE TRACE SLICE SPALE

Strategy after playing ROYAL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ROYAL:

11% chance
Suggested:
SIENT
9% chance
Suggested:
SPITE
9% chance
Suggested:
STANE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

11.2% →
SIENT 6.20 bits
9.0% →
SPITE 5.48 bits
8.9% →
STANE 5.43 bits
5.9% →
TRACE 4.61 bits
5.5% →
SLICE 5.11 bits
4.6% →
SPALE 4.58 bits
4.5% →
SIENT 5.21 bits
4.4% →
SPINE 4.59 bits
4.3% →
TRINE 4.44 bits
3.5% →
SIENT 4.61 bits

Research on ROYAL

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

Optimal play

Opening with ROYAL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #4,001 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.83 guesses at best and is rank #2,138 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, at or below the proven-optimal 3.69, 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 ROYUHL.

Rhymes with LOYAL

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, ROYAL is a kind of sheet or stag.

Synonyms purple imperial majestic REGAL NOBLE crowned

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
ROYAL sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 71 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A2); among the first words English learners study.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 60 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.7 of 5).

In a sentence

Will you watch the royal wedding?
© tatoeba.org contributor Hybrid (CC BY 2.0 FR)
The royal family lives in the Royal House.
© tatoeba.org contributor VirtuOZ (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; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).