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

VEALS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 94.3% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of veal

Verb

third-person singular simple present indicative of veal

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 VEALS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts VEALS 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 85.5% of games, misses completely in 14.5%, and leaves about 136 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,938 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.68 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 VEALS 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.

4.97 Entropy (bits)
136 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
94.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 82% of evaluated openers
0.98 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How VEALS 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.

3.68 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#5,938 Rank among openers
Opening with VEALS left 2 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 3.68 average. It ranks #5,938 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
71
3 guesses
836
4 guesses
1,225
5 guesses
204
6 guesses
16
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:
AELS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
86%
Green tile
30%
All gray
14%

Feedback distribution

VEALS can come back 98 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

345 answers
255 answers
198 answers
160 answers
111 answers
100 answers
98 answers
95 answers
68 answers
67 answers
66 answers
52 answers
51 answers
45 answers
37 answers
35 answers
32 answers
29 answers
28 answers
26 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
21 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

V4E1A1L1S1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing VEALS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing VEALS:

15% chance
Suggested:
COUNT
11% chance
Suggested:
TRONE
8% chance
Suggested:
CARAT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

14.5%
COUNT 5.81 bits
10.7%
TRONE 5.32 bits
8.3%
CARAT 4.95 bits
6.7%
SNOUT 5.06 bits
4.7%
SPIRE 4.83 bits
4.2%
TARGE 4.59 bits
4.1%
CLOUT 4.58 bits
4.0%
DETER 4.44 bits
2.9%
ELITE 4.21 bits
2.8%
TONAL 4.46 bits

Research on VEALS

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

Optimal play

Opening with VEALS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.72 guesses and ranks #6,215 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 VEALS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.68, at or below the proven-optimal 3.72, 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 VEELZ.

Rhymes with FEELS DEALS MEALS HEELS SEALS

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, VEALS is a kind of meat.

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).