SEDAN
Yes, SEDAN was the Wordle answer on January 11, 2023 (Wordle #571).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /səˈdæn/
- Noun
-
An enclosed windowed chair suitable for a single occupant, carried by at least two porters, in equal numbers in front and behind, using wooden rails that passed through metal brackets on the sides of the chair.
- Noun
-
An automobile designed in a configuration with separate compartments for engine space, driver/passenger space, and luggage or (limited) cargo space.
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
The sense of "windowed chair" was first used by Sir Sanders Duncombe in 1634, possibly from a southern Italian dialect of Italian sede (“seat”), from Latin sedes. The "motorcar" sense was first recorded in 1912 in North America.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
Two syllables, stress on the second syllable Say it SUHDAN.
Rhymes with BEGAN JAPAN SUDAN DIANE MORAN
Related meanings
Synonyms saloon
In a sentence
Tom drives a big sedan.
Tom drives a black sedan.
Use SEDAN in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 95.5% of possible answers.
Wordle status
A word can be a playable guess without being a possible answer.
Playable guess
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Used oncePast Wordle answer: January 11, 2023 (#571).
See the full page for that puzzle: January 11, 2023 (#571).
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
Wordle Observatory · optional
Played this Wordle?
Add your result to the public totals · about 20 seconds
Wordle Observatory · optional
Played this Wordle?
Add your result to the public totals · about 20 seconds
Add your result and a quick difficulty rating to help explain how this puzzle played.
See the public dataThank you. Your result now helps describe this puzzle.
See what the public sample says →How SEDAN performs as a guess
SEDAN is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,384 when every answer is treated as equally likely.
Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 88.1% of games, misses completely in 11.9%, and leaves about 108 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #665 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.59 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe SEDAN 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How SEDAN 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches SEDAN in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
SEDAN can come back 114 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for SEDAN; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing SEDAN
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to SEDAN.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing SEDAN:
Research on SEDAN
Game-tree analysis and word research for SEDAN, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with SEDAN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.63 guesses and ranks #917 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 SEDAN can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.59, at or below the proven-optimal 3.63, 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.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- SEDAN sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 4 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 (3.6 of 5).
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).