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

ZORIL

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

As an opener, it rules out about 92.8% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

Alternative spelling of zorille.

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 ZORIL performs as a guess

Wordle accepts ZORIL 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 82.8% of games, misses completely in 17.2%, and leaves about 172 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,273 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.75 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 ZORIL 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.

4.50 Entropy (bits)
172 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.8% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 52% of evaluated openers
1.45 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ZORIL 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.

3.75 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#9,273 Rank among openers
Opening with ZORIL left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.75 average. It ranks #9,273 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
42
3 guesses
814
4 guesses
1,214
5 guesses
264
6 guesses
18
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:
ILOR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
83%
Green tile
28%
All gray
17%

Feedback distribution

ZORIL can come back 73 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

409 answers
263 answers
218 answers
190 answers
122 answers
116 answers
112 answers
109 answers
85 answers
81 answers
65 answers
59 answers
55 answers
48 answers
39 answers
33 answers
32 answers
30 answers
22 answers
19 answers
17 answers
17 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

Z10O1R1I1L1
Total: 14 points

Words With Friends

Total: 15 points

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

Strategy after playing ZORIL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ZORIL:

17% chance
Suggested:
STANE
11% chance
Suggested:
TEASE
9% chance
Suggested:
SCALE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.2%
STANE 6.13 bits
11.1%
TEASE 5.37 bits
9.2%
SCALE 5.33 bits
8.0%
SIENT 5.45 bits
5.1%
STANE 5.20 bits
4.9%
CRANE 4.49 bits
4.7%
SANED 4.51 bits
4.6%
THANE 4.32 bits
3.6%
SPATE 4.78 bits
3.4%
AISLE 4.31 bits

Research on ZORIL

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

Optimal play

Opening with ZORIL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.77 guesses and ranks #9,303 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.92 guesses at best and is rank #4,557 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.75, 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 ZAWRUHL. Estimated pronunciation

This pronunciation is machine-estimated, not taken from a pronunciation dictionary.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, ZORIL is a kind of weasel.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model; Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0).