VOCAL
Yes, VOCAL was the Wordle answer on May 22, 2026 (Wordle #1798).
As an opener, it rules out about 91.5% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈvəʊ̯.kəl/[ˈvəʊ̯.kl̩]/ˈvoʊ̯.kəl/
- Adjective
-
Of, pertaining to, or resembling the human voice or speech.
“vocal problems”
- Adjective
-
Uttered or modulated by the voice; expressed in words.
“vocal melody, vocal prayer, vocal worship”
- Noun
-
A vocal sound; specifically, a purely vocal element of speech, unmodified except by resonance; a vowel or a diphthong; a tonic element; a tonic.
- Noun
-
A part of a piece of music that is sung.
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
Used oncePast Wordle answer: May 22, 2026 (#1798).
See the full page for that puzzle: May 22, 2026 (#1798).
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 VOCAL performs as a guess
VOCAL 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 79.3% of games, misses completely in 20.7%, and leaves about 202 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,167 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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 VOCAL 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 VOCAL 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 VOCAL in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
VOCAL can come back 98 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 VOCAL; 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 VOCAL
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to VOCAL.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing VOCAL:
Research on VOCAL
Game-tree analysis and word research for VOCAL, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with VOCAL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.73 guesses and ranks #7,090 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.84 guesses at best and is rank #2,429 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, at or below the proven-optimal 3.73, 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 VOHKUHL.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, VOCAL is a kind of music or piece.
Synonyms song outspoken loud
Opposites instrumental soft
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- VOCAL sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 14 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sound (4.7 of 5).
In a sentence
I'm not a vocal person.
They are a vocal minority.
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).