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

SIDLE

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈsaɪdl//ˈsaɪdəl/

Verb

To (cause something to) move sideways.

Verb

In the intransitive sense often followed by up: to (cause something to) advance in a coy, furtive, or unobtrusive manner.

Noun

An act of sidling.

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Etymology

The verb is from side + -le (frequentative suffix), possibly a back-formation from sideling (“in a sidelong direction; askew, obliquely”, adverb), treating that word as the present participle of sidle.

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it SYDUHL.

Rhymes with TIDAL IDYLL

In a sentence

Watch him sidle as he tries to avoid us.
© tatoeba.org contributor Tangobango (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use SIDLE in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 95.3% of possible answers.

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

No completed appearance

No appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

How SIDLE performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SIDLE 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 86.3% of games, misses completely in 13.7%, and leaves about 111 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #694 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 SIDLE 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.

5.34 Entropy (bits)
111 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
95.3% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SIDLE 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
99.87% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#694 Rank among openers
Opening with SIDLE 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 3.59 average. It ranks #694 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
84
3 guesses
985
4 guesses
1,106
5 guesses
162
6 guesses
14

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
EILS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
86%
Green tile
43%
All gray
14%

Feedback distribution

SIDLE can come back 119 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

326 answers
228 answers
131 answers
120 answers
118 answers
115 answers
97 answers
75 answers
67 answers
60 answers
48 answers
45 answers
45 answers
43 answers
41 answers
39 answers
37 answers
35 answers
34 answers
34 answers
31 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
23 answers
21 answers
21 answers
19 answers
16 answers
16 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1I1D2L1E1
Total: 6 points

Words With Friends

Total: 7 points

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

Strategy after playing SIDLE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SIDLE:

14% chance
Suggested:
COURT
10% chance
Suggested:
OATER
5% chance
Suggested:
CAROL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

13.7% →
COURT 5.87 bits
9.6% →
OATER 5.10 bits
5.5% →
CAROL 4.94 bits
5.0% →
TRAIN 5.37 bits
4.9% →
REACT 4.65 bits
4.8% →
ROAST 4.56 bits
4.1% →
RENAL 4.54 bits
3.1% →
TRASH 5.02 bits
2.8% →
DRAWN 4.92 bits
2.5% →
CONTE 3.82 bits

Research on SIDLE

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

Optimal play

Opening with SIDLE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.61 guesses and ranks #326 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 SIDLE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.59, 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SIDLE 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).