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

YEALM

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

As an opener, it rules out about 94.1% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

Alternative spelling of yelm.

Verb

Alternative spelling of yelm.

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 YEALM performs as a guess

Wordle accepts YEALM 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 86.6% of games, misses completely in 13.4%, and leaves about 141 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,984 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.70 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.

Useful pattern pages

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

First-turn measures

All four describe YEALM 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.

4.93 Entropy (bits)
141 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
94.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 80% of evaluated openers
1.01 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How YEALM 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.

3.70 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#6,984 Rank among openers
Opening with YEALM left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.73 means those games clustered within about 0.73 of a guess of the 3.70 average. It ranks #6,984 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
71
3 guesses
847
4 guesses
1,167
5 guesses
246
6 guesses
21
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:
AEL

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
87%
Green tile
29%
All gray
13%

Feedback distribution

YEALM can come back 101 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

344 answers
319 answers
137 answers
123 answers
115 answers
100 answers
97 answers
90 answers
86 answers
78 answers
74 answers
56 answers
51 answers
46 answers
42 answers
37 answers
34 answers
31 answers
29 answers
28 answers
25 answers
25 answers
25 answers
23 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

Y4E1A1L1M3
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing YEALM

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing YEALM:

14% chance
Suggested:
TRONE
13% chance
Suggested:
SNORT
6% chance
Suggested:
TAPIR

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

14.5%
TRONE 5.35 bits
13.4%
SNORT 6.05 bits
5.8%
TAPIR 5.24 bits
5.2%
STONY 4.29 bits
4.8%
TARSE 4.81 bits
4.2%
SHART 4.74 bits
4.1%
CLOUT 4.63 bits
3.8%
SIREN 4.61 bits
3.6%
SIREE 4.34 bits
3.3%
NATAL 4.53 bits

Research on YEALM

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

Optimal play

Opening with YEALM, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #4,496 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

No guaranteed hard-mode solve In hard mode, no strategy that opens with YEALM can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.70; proven optimal play reaches 3.70. 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

One syllable Say it YEHLM. 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.