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

VOBLA

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

As an opener, it rules out about 89.4% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

A Caspian roach (Rutilus caspicus), formerly considered a subspecies of the common roach.

Alternative forms: wobla

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 VOBLA performs as a guess

Wordle accepts VOBLA 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 76.7% of games, misses completely in 23.3%, and leaves about 252 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,714 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.73 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 VOBLA 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.

4.24 Entropy (bits)
252 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
89.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 35% of evaluated openers
1.71 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How VOBLA 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.

3.73 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#8,714 Rank among openers
Opening with VOBLA solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.73 average. It ranks #8,714 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
55
3 guesses
801
4 guesses
1,225
5 guesses
261
6 guesses
12
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:
ALO

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
77%
Green tile
24%
All gray
23%

Feedback distribution

VOBLA can come back 88 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

554 answers
412 answers
190 answers
154 answers
142 answers
134 answers
72 answers
54 answers
52 answers
45 answers
40 answers
38 answers
32 answers
27 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
20 answers
20 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers
12 answers
12 answers
12 answers
10 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

V4O1B3L1A1
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Strategy after playing VOBLA

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing VOBLA:

23% chance
Suggested:
TRINE
17% chance
Suggested:
TARSE
8% chance
Suggested:
TRINE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

23.3%
TRINE 6.19 bits
17.4%
TARSE 5.68 bits
8.0%
TRINE 5.41 bits
6.5%
CRUET 4.71 bits
6.0%
REAST 4.75 bits
5.6%
SINCE 4.96 bits
3.0%
STIRE 4.48 bits
2.3%
APRON 4.61 bits
2.2%
TRINE 4.97 bits
1.9%
SATEM 4.19 bits

Research on VOBLA

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

Optimal play

Opening with VOBLA, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.77 guesses and ranks #9,144 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.87 guesses at best and is rank #3,586 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.73, at or below the proven-optimal 3.77, 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 VOHBUHL. 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.