VIGIL
VIGIL is on the solver's possible-answer list but has not appeared as a Wordle answer yet.
As an opener, it rules out about 79.2% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈvɪd͡ʒəl/
- Noun
-
An instance of keeping awake during normal sleeping hours, especially to keep watch or pray.
- Noun
-
A period of observation or surveillance at any hour.
“His dog kept vigil outside the hospital for eight days while he was recovering from an accident.”
- Verb
-
To participate in a vigil.
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
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Not used yetNo past answer date found.
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →How VIGIL performs as a guess
VIGIL 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 58.2% of games, misses completely in 41.8%, and leaves about 494 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #14,002 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.90 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe VIGIL 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How VIGIL 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches VIGIL in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
VIGIL can come back 70 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for VIGIL; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing VIGIL
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to VIGIL.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing VIGIL:
Research on VIGIL
Game-tree analysis and word research for VIGIL, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with VIGIL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.90 guesses and ranks #13,823 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 4.02 guesses at best and is rank #6,497 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.90, at or below the proven-optimal 3.90, 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 VIHJUHL.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- VIGIL sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 2 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 (2.6 of 5).
In a sentence
She is not able to keep vigil.
They are not able to keep vigil.
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).