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

SEPAL

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

As an opener, it rules out about 95.2% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈsɛp(ə)l//ˈsiːp(ə)l/

Noun

One of the component parts of the calyx, particularly when such components are not fused into a single structure.

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 SEPAL performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SEPAL 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 87.5% of games, misses completely in 12.5%, and leaves about 114 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #650 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.

All gray? Tap a tile to cycle gray → yellow → green.

First-turn measures

All four describe SEPAL 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.

5.33 Entropy (bits)
114 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
95.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 96% of evaluated openers
0.62 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SEPAL 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.

3.59 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#650 Rank among openers
Opening with SEPAL left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.59 average. It ranks #650 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
90
3 guesses
966
4 guesses
1,131
5 guesses
153
6 guesses
13
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:
AELS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
88%
Green tile
35%
All gray
12%

Feedback distribution

SEPAL can come back 130 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

296 answers
243 answers
216 answers
115 answers
114 answers
93 answers
81 answers
72 answers
62 answers
60 answers
54 answers
48 answers
44 answers
42 answers
42 answers
37 answers
37 answers
29 answers
27 answers
26 answers
24 answers
24 answers
22 answers
21 answers
21 answers
20 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
17 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1E1P3A1L1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing SEPAL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SEPAL:

12% chance
Suggested:
COUNT
10% chance
Suggested:
TRODE
9% chance
Suggested:
CAIRN

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.5%
COUNT 5.82 bits
10.2%
TRODE 5.30 bits
9.1%
CAIRN 5.24 bits
4.8%
TARGE 4.65 bits
4.8%
COULD 4.81 bits
3.9%
DETER 4.42 bits
3.4%
SNOUT 4.54 bits
3.0%
RIONE 4.19 bits
2.6%
MOIST 4.77 bits
2.5%
ALLOY 3.81 bits

Research on SEPAL

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

Optimal play

Opening with SEPAL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.63 guesses and ranks #732 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 SEPAL 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.

How it sounds

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it SEEPUHL. Estimated pronunciation

This pronunciation is machine-estimated, not taken from a pronunciation dictionary.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SEPAL is a kind of leaf.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SEPAL sits in the rare band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word few players will have met in print.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model; Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).