5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess C tier for first-turn info

WHEEL

Yes, WHEEL was the Wordle answer on July 25, 2023 (Wordle #766).

As an opener, it rules out about 88.3% of possible answers.

Open Solver with WHEEL Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈwiːl/[ˈwɪi̯l]/ˈʍiːl/

Noun

A circular device capable of rotating on its axis, facilitating movement or transportation or performing labour in machines.

Noun

The breaking wheel, an old instrument of torture.

Verb

To roll along on wheels.

“Wheel that trolley over here, would you?”

Verb

To transport something or someone using any wheeled mechanism, such as a wheelchair.

“The patient was wheeled out of the ER.”

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

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

Past Wordle answer

Used once

Past Wordle answer: July 25, 2023 (#766).

See the full page for that puzzle: July 25, 2023 (#766).

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

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How WHEEL performs as a guess

WHEEL 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 72.6% of games, misses completely in 27.4%, and leaves about 277 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #11,803 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.80 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.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

W___L W in the 1st position and L in the 5th position W__E_ W in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _H__L H in the 2nd position and L in the 5th position

Explore lists that match the beginning, ending or letters in WHEEL.

First-turn measures

All four describe WHEEL 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.

4.18 Entropy (bits)
277 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
88.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 31% of evaluated openers
1.77 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How WHEEL 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.

3.80 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#11,803 Rank among openers
Opening with WHEEL solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.73 means those games clustered within about 0.73 of a guess of the 3.80 average. It ranks #11,803 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
47
3 guesses
735
4 guesses
1,224
5 guesses
322
6 guesses
25
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
2 vowels
Common:
EL

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
73%
Green tile
31%
All gray
27%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S I L E N
B E E C H
W H E E L

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches WHEEL in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

WHEEL can come back 83 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

650 answers
331 answers
237 answers
135 answers
126 answers
110 answers
75 answers
60 answers
51 answers
39 answers
37 answers
36 answers
34 answers
30 answers
28 answers
24 answers
23 answers
21 answers
21 answers
18 answers
18 answers
18 answers
13 answers
13 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
8 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

W4H4E1E1L1
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Try next

TRAIN RAISE SLAIN RAINY COAST SABLE

Strategy after playing WHEEL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing WHEEL:

27% chance
Suggested:
TRAIN
14% chance
Suggested:
RAISE
10% chance
Suggested:
SLAIN

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

27.4% →
TRAIN 5.98 bits
13.9% →
RAISE 5.21 bits
10.0% →
SLAIN 4.82 bits
5.7% →
RAINY 4.41 bits
5.3% →
COAST 4.87 bits
4.6% →
SABLE 4.35 bits
3.2% →
SONAR 4.55 bits
2.5% →
ROAST 4.68 bits
2.1% →
TREAD 4.48 bits
1.6% →
SNARY 4.54 bits

Research on WHEEL

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

Optimal play

Opening with WHEEL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.81 guesses and ranks #10,996 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.94 guesses at best and is rank #5,163 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.80, at or below the proven-optimal 3.81, 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

One syllable Say it WEEL.

Rhymes with STEEL IDEAL STEAL KNEEL SPIEL

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, WHEEL is a kind of machine or control.

Synonyms roll CYCLE bike bicycle rack PEDAL

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
WHEEL sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 32 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A1); among the first words English learners study.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 3, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 91 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.8 of 5).

In a sentence

I was behind the wheel.
© tatoeba.org contributor megamanenm (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Will you take the wheel off?
© tatoeba.org contributor sundown (CC BY 2.0 FR)

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); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).