5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess B tier for first-turn info

TOWEL

Yes, TOWEL was the Wordle answer on March 24, 2024 (Wordle #1009).

As an opener, it rules out about 94.6% of possible answers.

Open Solver with TOWEL Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈtaʊ̯əl/[ˈtʰaʊ̯l̩]/ˈtæʊ̯əl/

Noun

A cloth used for wiping, especially one used for drying anything wet, such as a person after a bath.

“He needed a towel for wiping the slippery floor.”

Verb

To dry by using a towel.

“He got out of the shower and toweled himself dry.”

Verb

To hit with a towel.

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

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

Past Wordle answer

Used once

Past Wordle answer: March 24, 2024 (#1009).

See the full page for that puzzle: March 24, 2024 (#1009).

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

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How TOWEL performs as a guess

TOWEL 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 86.5% of games, misses completely in 13.5%, and leaves about 129 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #4,863 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.67 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.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

T___L T in the 1st position and L in the 5th position T__E_ T in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _O__L O in the 2nd position and L in the 5th position

Explore lists that match the beginning, ending or letters in TOWEL.

First-turn measures

All four describe TOWEL 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.

5.02 Entropy (bits)
129 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
94.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 84% of evaluated openers
0.93 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How TOWEL 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.

3.67 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#4,863 Rank among openers
Opening with TOWEL left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.67 average. It ranks #4,863 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
63
3 guesses
899
4 guesses
1,158
5 guesses
218
6 guesses
14
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
2 vowels
Common:
ELOT

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
86%
Green tile
33%
All gray
14%

Example solver route

R O A T E
M U L C H
T O W E L

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches TOWEL in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

TOWEL can come back 100 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

320 answers
277 answers
153 answers
146 answers
128 answers
117 answers
104 answers
101 answers
79 answers
63 answers
53 answers
44 answers
43 answers
39 answers
35 answers
33 answers
33 answers
33 answers
32 answers
31 answers
30 answers
30 answers
26 answers
26 answers
25 answers
20 answers
20 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

T1O1W4E1L1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Try next

CAIRN SEARE SAUCY SAINT ARSON AIDER

Strategy after playing TOWEL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing TOWEL:

13% chance
Suggested:
CAIRN
12% chance
Suggested:
SEARE
6% chance
Suggested:
SAUCY

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

13.5% →
CAIRN 5.85 bits
11.7% →
SEARE 5.42 bits
6.4% →
SAUCY 5.01 bits
6.1% →
SAINT 5.32 bits
5.4% →
ARSON 5.25 bits
4.9% →
AIDER 4.23 bits
4.4% →
GLACE 4.45 bits
4.3% →
SEARE 4.81 bits
3.3% →
SNARY 4.15 bits
2.7% →
SNARE 4.35 bits

Research on TOWEL

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

Optimal play

Opening with TOWEL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #2,511 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.78 guesses at best and is rank #927 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.67, at or below the proven-optimal 3.66, 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 TOWUHL.

Rhymes with BOWEL VOWEL DOWEL

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, TOWEL is a kind of piece or wipe.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
TOWEL sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 9 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
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: 95 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.

In a sentence

You can have the towel.
© tatoeba.org contributor Amastan (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Is this a new towel?
© tatoeba.org contributor Amastan (CC BY 2.0 FR)

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).