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

VENAE

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

As an opener, it rules out about 91.3% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of vena

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 VENAE performs as a guess

Wordle accepts VENAE 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 78.1% of games, misses completely in 21.9%, and leaves about 207 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,385 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.82 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 VENAE 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.

4.49 Entropy (bits)
207 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
91.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 51% of evaluated openers
1.46 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How VENAE 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.

3.82 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#12,385 Rank among openers
Opening with VENAE left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.73 means those games clustered within about 0.73 of a guess of the 3.82 average. It ranks #12,385 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
57
3 guesses
681
4 guesses
1,265
5 guesses
320
6 guesses
28
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

4/5 unique
3 vowels
Common:
AEN

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
78%
Green tile
38%
All gray
22%

Feedback distribution

VENAE can come back 86 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

521 answers
319 answers
168 answers
144 answers
138 answers
117 answers
92 answers
71 answers
69 answers
58 answers
48 answers
45 answers
43 answers
38 answers
37 answers
35 answers
30 answers
25 answers
25 answers
22 answers
18 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

V4E1N1A1E1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing VENAE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing VENAE:

22% chance
Suggested:
SOULY
13% chance
Suggested:
SLART
7% chance
Suggested:
SOLER

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

21.9%
SOULY 5.60 bits
13.4%
SLART 5.24 bits
7.1%
SOLER 4.86 bits
6.1%
SOILY 4.77 bits
5.8%
GRISE 4.29 bits
4.9%
SLART 4.57 bits
3.9%
STAIR 4.53 bits
3.0%
BERTH 4.01 bits
2.9%
SORAL 4.49 bits
2.4%
LATER 4.25 bits

Research on VENAE

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

Optimal play

Opening with VENAE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.79 guesses and ranks #10,108 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 VENAE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.82; proven optimal play reaches 3.79. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.

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 VEENAY. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, VENAE is a kind of vessel.

Synonyms vein

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).