SMELL
Yes, SMELL was the Wordle answer on March 12, 2026 (Wordle #1727).
As an opener, it rules out about 90.1% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /smɛl/
- Noun
-
A sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, detected by inhaling air (or, the case of water-breathing animals, water) carrying airborne molecules of a substance.
“I love the smell of fresh bread.”
- Noun
-
The sense that detects odours.
- Verb
-
To sense a smell or smells.
“I can smell fresh bread.”
- Verb
-
Followed by like or of if descriptive: to have a particular smell, whether good or bad.
“The roses smell lovely.”
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
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Used oncePast Wordle answer: March 12, 2026 (#1727).
See the full page for that puzzle: March 12, 2026 (#1727).
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 SMELL performs as a guess
SMELL is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,374 when every answer is treated as equally likely.
Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 78.1% of games, misses completely in 21.9%, and leaves about 234 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,359 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.75 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 SMELL 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 SMELL 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 SMELL in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
SMELL can come back 78 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 SMELL; 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 SMELL
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to SMELL.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing SMELL:
Research on SMELL
Game-tree analysis and word research for SMELL, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with SMELL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.80 guesses and ranks #10,723 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 #4,966 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.75, 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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, SMELL is a kind of sensation or property.
Synonyms look feel SENSE feeling spirit tone
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- SMELL sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 31 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
- Learner level
- Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A1); among the first words English learners study.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 4, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 37 of 100. Raters found it difficult to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with smell (4.9 of 5).
In a sentence
I like the smell of it.
Don't you like that smell?
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); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).