TOTAL
Yes, TOTAL was the Wordle answer on January 12, 2025 (Wordle #1303).
As an opener, it rules out about 92.8% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈtəʊ.tl̩//ˈtoʊ.tl̩/[tʰoʊ̯ɾɫ]
- Noun
-
An amount obtained by the addition of smaller amounts.
“A total of £145 was raised by the bring-and-buy stall.”
- Noun
-
Sum.
“The total of 4, 5 and 6 is 15.”
- Adjective
-
Entire; relating to the whole of something.
“The total book is rubbish from start to finish. The total number of votes cast is 3,270.”
- Adjective
-
Complete; absolute.
“He is a total failure.”
Alternative forms: totall
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: January 12, 2025 (#1303).
See the full page for that puzzle: January 12, 2025 (#1303).
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 TOTAL performs as a guess
TOTAL 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 81.9% of games, misses completely in 18.1%, and leaves about 171 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,503 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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 TOTAL 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 TOTAL 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 TOTAL in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
TOTAL can come back 101 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 TOTAL; 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 TOTAL
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to TOTAL.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing TOTAL:
Research on TOTAL
Game-tree analysis and word research for TOTAL, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with TOTAL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.74 guesses and ranks #7,604 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 TOTAL can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, at or below the proven-optimal 3.74, 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 TOHTUHL.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, TOTAL is a kind of whole or quantity.
Synonyms come number full amount add entire
Opposites incomplete subtract fractional
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- TOTAL sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 162 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
- Learner level
- Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B1); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.9 of 5).
In a sentence
What does the total come to?
What is the total amount?
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; Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).