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

SPALT

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

As an opener, it rules out about 94.3% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /spɔːlt/

Noun

spelter.

Adjective

brittle.

Adjective

heedless; clumsy; pert; saucy.

Verb

To break off pieces, or have them broken off, especially with an axe etc; to splinter.

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.

Why this solver ranks SPALT highly

This solver ranks SPALT highly because it separates the possible answers well, even though it is not itself a possible answer.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 82.3% of games, misses completely in 17.7%, and leaves about 136 possible answers on average.

In the current bounded six-turn policy, it ranks #61 of 182 evaluated openers; exact misses rank first, then average guesses among wins.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.53 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 SPALT 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.

5.20 Entropy (bits)
136 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
94.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 92% of evaluated openers
0.74 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SPALT 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.

3.53 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.67 Spread of game lengths
#8 Rank among openers
Opening with SPALT solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.67 means those games clustered within about 0.67 of a guess of the 3.53 average. It ranks #8 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
73
3 guesses
1,110
4 guesses
1,040
5 guesses
119
6 guesses
12
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
1 vowels
Common:
ALST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
38%
All gray
18%

Feedback distribution

SPALT can come back 125 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

420 answers
207 answers
148 answers
146 answers
92 answers
88 answers
84 answers
78 answers
72 answers
66 answers
66 answers
59 answers
39 answers
33 answers
30 answers
29 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
21 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1P3A1L1T1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing SPALT

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SPALT:

18% chance
Suggested:
DRONE
9% chance
Suggested:
MORNE
6% chance
Suggested:
RIONE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.7%
DRONE 6.17 bits
8.7%
MORNE 5.41 bits
6.2%
RIONE 5.05 bits
6.1%
TRITE 5.41 bits
3.9%
RENAL 4.63 bits
3.7%
RIONE 5.09 bits
3.5%
PRONE 5.11 bits
3.3%
DRICE 4.95 bits
3.0%
MOIRE 4.80 bits
2.8%
GOIER 4.93 bits

Research on SPALT

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

Optimal play

Opening with SPALT, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.60 guesses and ranks #219 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.70 guesses at best and is rank #12 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.53, at or below the proven-optimal 3.60, 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

One syllable Say it SPAWLT. Estimated pronunciation

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

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model.