Possible answer Not used yet C tier for first-turn info

VAPOR

VAPOR is on the solver's possible-answer list but has not appeared as a Wordle answer yet.

As an opener, it rules out about 92.4% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈveɪpə//ˈveɪpɚ/

Noun

Cloudy diffused matter such as mist, steam or fumes suspended in the air.

Noun

The gaseous state of a substance that is normally a solid or liquid.

Verb

To become vapor; to be emitted or circulated as vapor.

Verb

To turn into vapor.

Alternative forms: vapour

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

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 VAPOR performs as a guess

VAPOR 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 80.7% of games, misses completely in 19.3%, and leaves about 181 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,024 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.

All gray? Tap a tile to cycle gray → yellow → green.

First-turn measures

All four describe VAPOR 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.

4.62 Entropy (bits)
181 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
92.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 60% of evaluated openers
1.33 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How VAPOR 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.

3.69 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#6,024 Rank among openers
Opening with VAPOR left 1 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 3.69 average. It ranks #6,024 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
55
3 guesses
877
4 guesses
1,180
5 guesses
229
6 guesses
11
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:
AOR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
81%
Green tile
27%
All gray
19%

Example solver route

R O A T E
A R M O R
F A L E S
V A P O R

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches VAPOR in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

VAPOR can come back 94 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

457 answers
241 answers
221 answers
187 answers
148 answers
139 answers
105 answers
84 answers
64 answers
51 answers
46 answers
41 answers
37 answers
33 answers
33 answers
29 answers
26 answers
24 answers
23 answers
17 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
16 answers
16 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

V4A1P3O1R1
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing VAPOR

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing VAPOR:

19% chance
Suggested:
STILE
10% chance
Suggested:
SLATE
9% chance
Suggested:
SONLY

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

19.3%
STILE 6.10 bits
10.2%
SLATE 5.66 bits
9.3%
SONLY 4.81 bits
7.9%
SEITY 5.36 bits
6.2%
TUILE 4.49 bits
5.9%
TRACE 4.87 bits
4.4%
STONE 4.59 bits
3.5%
SLICE 5.02 bits
2.7%
SEINE 3.71 bits
2.1%
TONAL 4.50 bits

Research on VAPOR

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

Optimal play

Opening with VAPOR, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.73 guesses and ranks #6,696 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 VAPOR can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, at or below the proven-optimal 3.73, 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 VAYPUR.

Rhymes with PAPER TAPER CAPER RAPER

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, VAPOR is a kind of suspension or action.

Synonyms evaporation vapour

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
VAPOR sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 4 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.0 of 5).

In a sentence

A cloud is a mass of vapor.
© tatoeba.org contributor AlanF_US (CC BY 2.0 FR)
The vapor in the air is toxic to humans.
© tatoeba.org contributor Teangloir (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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).