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

SAULT

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

As an opener, it rules out about 95.1% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈsɔːlt//suː/

Noun

A waterfall; a rapid.

Noun

Assault.

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.

Why this solver ranks SAULT highly

This solver ranks SAULT highly because it separates the possible answers well, even though it is not itself a possible answer.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 84.3% of games, misses completely in 15.7%, and leaves about 117 possible answers on average.

In the current bounded six-turn policy, it ranks #40 of 182 evaluated openers; exact misses rank first, then average guesses among wins.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.53 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 SAULT 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.

5.38 Entropy (bits)
117 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
95.1% 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 SAULT 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.

3.53 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#12 Rank among openers
Opening with SAULT left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.53 average. It ranks #12 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
79
3 guesses
1,111
4 guesses
1,013
5 guesses
135
6 guesses
14
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:
ALSTU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
84%
Green tile
44%
All gray
16%

Feedback distribution

SAULT can come back 133 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

373 answers
179 answers
131 answers
125 answers
122 answers
107 answers
101 answers
93 answers
54 answers
53 answers
52 answers
48 answers
41 answers
40 answers
35 answers
31 answers
31 answers
30 answers
28 answers
28 answers
25 answers
24 answers
24 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
17 answers
17 answers
17 answers
15 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1A1U1L1T1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 7 points

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

Strategy after playing SAULT

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SAULT:

16% chance
Suggested:
DRONE
8% chance
Suggested:
DRONE
6% chance
Suggested:
NOIRE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

15.7%
DRONE 6.14 bits
7.5%
DRONE 5.63 bits
5.5%
NOIRE 5.04 bits
5.3%
THEIR 5.33 bits
5.1%
MORNE 4.84 bits
4.5%
CRANE 4.54 bits
4.3%
MORNE 4.59 bits
3.9%
PRONE 5.01 bits
2.3%
PRONE 4.83 bits
2.2%
DILLY 4.35 bits

Research on SAULT

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

Optimal play

Opening with SAULT, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.61 guesses and ranks #267 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 SAULT can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.53, 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

One syllable Say it SAWLT.

Rhymes with FAULT VAULT EXALT GAULT DAULT

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SAULT sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).