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

VEXIL

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

As an opener, it rules out about 88.2% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

A vexillum.

Noun

A flag, a vexillum.

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 VEXIL performs as a guess

Wordle accepts VEXIL 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 75.1% of games, misses completely in 24.9%, and leaves about 280 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,553 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.87 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 VEXIL 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.

3.94 Entropy (bits)
280 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
88.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 20% of evaluated openers
2.01 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How VEXIL 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.

3.87 Avg guesses
99.83% Solved within six
0.75 Spread of game lengths
#13,553 Rank among openers
Opening with VEXIL left 4 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.75 means those games clustered within about 0.75 of a guess of the 3.87 average. It ranks #13,553 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
56
3 guesses
633
4 guesses
1,249
5 guesses
382
6 guesses
30
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:
EIL

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
75%
Green tile
23%
All gray
25%

Feedback distribution

VEXIL can come back 78 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

591 answers
409 answers
200 answers
197 answers
132 answers
129 answers
120 answers
83 answers
55 answers
52 answers
38 answers
38 answers
35 answers
28 answers
21 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
8 answers
7 answers
7 answers
6 answers
5 answers
5 answers
5 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

V4E1X8I1L1
Total: 15 points

Words With Friends

Total: 17 points

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

Strategy after playing VEXIL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing VEXIL:

25% chance
Suggested:
ROAST
17% chance
Suggested:
ROAST
8% chance
Suggested:
PRINT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

24.9%
ROAST 5.98 bits
17.2%
ROAST 5.54 bits
8.4%
PRINT 5.01 bits
8.3%
COAST 5.05 bits
5.6%
STARY 4.86 bits
5.4%
TRINE 4.66 bits
5.1%
BLATE 4.58 bits
3.5%
COAST 5.03 bits
2.3%
SAINT 3.68 bits
2.2%
SONAR 4.31 bits

Research on VEXIL

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

Optimal play

Opening with VEXIL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.87 guesses and ranks #13,120 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 4.00 guesses at best and is rank #6,174 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.87; proven optimal play reaches 3.87. 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 VEHKSUHL. Estimated pronunciation

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

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model.