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

SABER

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

As an opener, it rules out about 95.9% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈseɪ.bɚ//ˈseɪ.bə/

Noun

US standard spelling of sabre.

Noun

Clipping of lightsaber

Verb

US standard spelling of sabre.

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 SABER performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SABER 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 87.8% of games, misses completely in 12.2%, and leaves about 97 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,851 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.63 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 SABER 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.

5.39 Entropy (bits)
97 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
95.9% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 97% of evaluated openers
0.56 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SABER 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.

3.63 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#2,851 Rank among openers
Opening with SABER left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.63 average. It ranks #2,851 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
79
3 guesses
918
4 guesses
1,154
5 guesses
185
6 guesses
16
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:
AERS

Feedback chances

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

Feedback distribution

SABER can come back 117 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

289 answers
175 answers
130 answers
128 answers
109 answers
98 answers
96 answers
95 answers
84 answers
77 answers
70 answers
57 answers
54 answers
49 answers
48 answers
41 answers
39 answers
35 answers
29 answers
27 answers
26 answers
26 answers
25 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
21 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1A1B3E1R1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Strategy after playing SABER

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SABER:

12% chance
Suggested:
COUNT
7% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
5% chance
Suggested:
TONAL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.2%
COUNT 5.63 bits
7.4%
TOILE 5.26 bits
5.5%
TONAL 5.02 bits
5.4%
COURT 4.93 bits
4.6%
STINK 4.40 bits
4.1%
DEALT 4.83 bits
4.0%
POIRE 4.18 bits
4.0%
TANGY 3.95 bits
3.5%
TOILE 3.38 bits
3.2%
TRAIN 4.14 bits

Research on SABER

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

Optimal play

Opening with SABER, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.62 guesses and ranks #683 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 SABER can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.63; proven optimal play reaches 3.62. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.

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 SAYBUR.

Rhymes with LABOR SABRE TABOR TABER SABIR

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SABER is a kind of brand or steel.

Synonyms SABRE

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SABER sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 2 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.1 of 5).

In a sentence

Be careful with the saber; it's very sharp.
© tatoeba.org contributor araneo (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Tom is rattling his saber.
© tatoeba.org contributor danepo (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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).