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

SPAWL

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

As an opener, it rules out about 91.0% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /spɔːl/

Noun

Alternative form of spall.

Noun

Scattered or ejected spittle.

Verb

To scatter spittle from the mouth; to spit.

Verb

To say in a rough manner.

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 SPAWL performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SPAWL 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 76.2% of games, misses completely in 23.8%, and leaves about 215 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #4,081 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.65 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 SPAWL 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.

4.54 Entropy (bits)
215 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
91.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 54% of evaluated openers
1.41 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SPAWL 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.

3.65 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.66 Spread of game lengths
#4,081 Rank among openers
Opening with SPAWL left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.66 means those games clustered within about 0.66 of a guess of the 3.65 average. It ranks #4,081 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
45
3 guesses
918
4 guesses
1,203
5 guesses
179
6 guesses
8
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:
ALS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
32%
All gray
24%

Feedback distribution

SPAWL can come back 89 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

564 answers
274 answers
192 answers
122 answers
111 answers
109 answers
101 answers
94 answers
61 answers
53 answers
41 answers
40 answers
39 answers
36 answers
34 answers
31 answers
31 answers
26 answers
25 answers
23 answers
21 answers
19 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1P3A1W4L1
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing SPAWL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SPAWL:

24% chance
Suggested:
TONER
12% chance
Suggested:
TONER
8% chance
Suggested:
TOILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

23.8%
TONER 6.14 bits
11.5%
TONER 5.44 bits
8.1%
TOILE 5.06 bits
5.1%
RONTE 5.11 bits
4.7%
RUOTE 5.49 bits
4.6%
POIRE 5.15 bits
4.3%
DRICE 5.04 bits
4.0%
TALER 4.62 bits
2.6%
RONTE 5.09 bits
2.2%
TONER 4.21 bits

Research on SPAWL

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

Optimal play

Opening with SPAWL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,448 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.80 guesses at best and is rank #1,406 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, at or below the proven-optimal 3.71, 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 SPAWL. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SPAWL is a kind of fragment.

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).