SELLS
SELLS is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.
As an opener, it rules out about 87.4% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /sɛlz/
- Verb
-
third-person singular simple present indicative of sell
- Noun
-
plural of sell
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
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
NoThe solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.
Past Wordle answer
Not used yetNo past answer date found.
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →How SELLS performs as a guess
Wordle accepts SELLS 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 73.3% of games, misses completely in 26.7%, and leaves about 300 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,490 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.87 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 SELLS 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 SELLS 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
Feedback distribution
SELLS can come back 61 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 SELLS; 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 SELLS
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to SELLS.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing SELLS:
Research on SELLS
Game-tree analysis and word research for SELLS, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with SELLS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.90 guesses and ranks #13,783 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 SELLS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.87, at or below the proven-optimal 3.90, 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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, SELLS is a kind of sale or change.
Synonyms deal TRADE betray
Opposites buy
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- SELLS sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 12 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.4 of 5).
In a sentence
This book sells very well.
His new record sells well.
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).