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

ULNAE

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

As an opener, it rules out about 95.8% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of ulna

Alternative forms: ulnas

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 ULNAE performs as a guess

Wordle accepts ULNAE 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 90.2% of games, misses completely in 9.8%, and leaves about 99 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,896 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.64 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 ULNAE 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.

5.32 Entropy (bits)
99 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
95.8% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 96% of evaluated openers
0.62 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ULNAE 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.

3.64 Avg guesses
99.83% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#2,896 Rank among openers
Opening with ULNAE left 4 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.64 average. It ranks #2,896 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
77
3 guesses
912
4 guesses
1,171
5 guesses
170
6 guesses
20
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
3 vowels
Common:
AELNU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
90%
Green tile
37%
All gray
10%

Feedback distribution

ULNAE can come back 109 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

233 answers
220 answers
206 answers
137 answers
112 answers
87 answers
82 answers
72 answers
70 answers
66 answers
65 answers
61 answers
58 answers
43 answers
38 answers
36 answers
35 answers
31 answers
30 answers
30 answers
29 answers
29 answers
28 answers
28 answers
27 answers
25 answers
25 answers
22 answers
21 answers
21 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

U1L1N1A1E1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Strategy after playing ULNAE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ULNAE:

10% chance
Suggested:
SHORT
9% chance
Suggested:
SATYR
9% chance
Suggested:
DETER

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

9.8%
SHORT 5.91 bits
9.3%
SATYR 5.02 bits
8.7%
DETER 5.32 bits
5.8%
CRUST 5.05 bits
4.7%
POIRE 4.53 bits
3.7%
SHART 4.22 bits
3.5%
SILLY 4.72 bits
3.0%
THORN 4.66 bits
2.9%
CARET 4.25 bits
2.8%
BETEL 4.15 bits

Research on ULNAE

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

Optimal play

Opening with ULNAE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.65 guesses and ranks #1,709 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 ULNAE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, at or below the proven-optimal 3.65, 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 UHLNAY. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, ULNAE is a kind of bone.

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).