5 FiveLetterWords
Accepted guess Not a possible answer C tier for first-turn info

SCULL

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

As an opener, it rules out about 87.0% of possible answers.

Open Solver with SCULL Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /skʌl//skʊl/

Noun

A single oar mounted at the stern of a boat and moved from side to side to propel the boat forward.

Noun

One of a pair of oars handled by a single rower.

Verb

To row a boat using a scull or sculls.

Verb

To skate while keeping both feet in contact with the ground or ice.

Alternative forms: skol, skull

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 SCULL performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SCULL 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 68.7% of games, misses completely in 31.3%, and leaves about 310 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,327 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.73 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.

S___L S in the 1st position and L in the 5th position S__L_ S in the 1st position and L in the 4th position _C__L C in the 2nd position and L in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe SCULL 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.

4.07 Entropy (bits)
310 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
87.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 26% of evaluated openers
1.87 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SCULL 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.

3.73 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#8,327 Rank among openers
Opening with SCULL left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.73 average. It ranks #8,327 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
39
3 guesses
850
4 guesses
1,195
5 guesses
248
6 guesses
19
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

4/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
LSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
69%
Green tile
32%
All gray
31%

Feedback distribution

SCULL can come back 76 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

744 answers
222 answers
195 answers
184 answers
139 answers
134 answers
78 answers
55 answers
54 answers
43 answers
38 answers
31 answers
31 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
18 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1C3U1L1L1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Try next

ROATE TIARE PARTE RONTE OATER GRATE

Strategy after playing SCULL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SCULL:

31% chance
Suggested:
ROATE
9% chance
Suggested:
TIARE
8% chance
Suggested:
PARTE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

31.3% →
ROATE 6.12 bits
9.4% →
TIARE 5.63 bits
8.2% →
PARTE 5.44 bits
7.8% →
TIARE 5.28 bits
5.9% →
ROATE 5.59 bits
5.6% →
RONTE 5.01 bits
3.3% →
OATER 4.58 bits
2.3% →
GRATE 4.64 bits
2.3% →
DAINE 4.65 bits
1.8% →
CLEAN 4.45 bits

Research on SCULL

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

Optimal play

Opening with SCULL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.80 guesses and ranks #10,651 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.93 guesses at best and is rank #4,825 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.73, at or below the proven-optimal 3.80, 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 SKUHL.

Rhymes with SKULL STULL TRULL

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SCULL is a kind of implement or means.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SCULL 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 relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).