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

YODEL

Yes, YODEL was the Wordle answer on October 12, 2026 (Wordle #1941).

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈjəʊ.dəl//ˈjoʊ.dəl/

Verb

To sing (a song) in such a way that the voice fluctuates rapidly between the normal chest voice and falsetto.

Noun

An act of yodelling.

Noun

A song incorporating yodelling.

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

How it sounds

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it YOHDUHL.

Rhymes with MODAL BODLE

In a sentence

Is it tacky that I know how to yodel?
© tatoeba.org contributor DJ_Saidez (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use YODEL in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 94.0% of possible answers.

Open Solver with YODEL Open Word Finder

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: October 12, 2026 (#1941).

See the full page for that puzzle: October 12, 2026 (#1941).

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

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YODEL in Connections

1 recorded appearance in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.

How YODEL performs as a guess

YODEL is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,384 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 86.1% of games, misses completely in 13.9%, and leaves about 143 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,312 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.67 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.

Y___L Y in the 1st position and L in the 5th position Y__E_ Y in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _O__L O in the 2nd position and L in the 5th position YO_EL Y in the 1st position, O in the 2nd position, E in the 4th position, and L in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe YODEL 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.

4.89 Entropy (bits)
143 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
94.0% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How YODEL 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.

3.67 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#5,312 Rank among openers
Opening with YODEL left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.67 average. It ranks #5,312 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
60
3 guesses
881
4 guesses
1,189
5 guesses
210
6 guesses
13

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ELO

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
86%
Green tile
30%
All gray
14%

Feedback distribution

YODEL can come back 96 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

331 answers
319 answers
166 answers
147 answers
140 answers
116 answers
112 answers
83 answers
67 answers
58 answers
53 answers
52 answers
42 answers
41 answers
36 answers
31 answers
30 answers
30 answers
28 answers
26 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
16 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

Y4O1D2E1L1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Try next

SAINT REAST ARSON STAIR SLAIN STALE

Strategy after playing YODEL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing YODEL:

14% chance
Suggested:
SAINT
13% chance
Suggested:
REAST
7% chance
Suggested:
ARSON

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

13.9% →
SAINT 6.20 bits
13.4% →
REAST 5.64 bits
7.0% →
ARSON 5.25 bits
6.2% →
SAINT 4.97 bits
5.9% →
STAIR 4.74 bits
4.9% →
SLAIN 4.86 bits
4.7% →
STALE 4.75 bits
3.5% →
SHART 4.51 bits
2.8% →
STORE 4.37 bits
2.4% →
STAIR 4.52 bits

Research on YODEL

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

Optimal play

Opening with YODEL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #2,404 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 YODEL can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.67; proven optimal play reaches 3.66. 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
YODEL sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sound (4.2 of 5).

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).