5 FiveLetterWords

Five-letter words matching __E_L

Green letters (right spot)
Yellow letters (wrong spots)

Add every position where a present letter cannot go. Use Must contain twice for two copies, or the Solver for full guess rows.

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Showing 37 matching words
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The top-ranked splitter is shown in the shortlist note below. Add a gray or yellow clue here to recalculate after the position changes.

Possible answers

DWELL IDEAL KNEEL KNELL QUELL SHELL SMELL SPELL STEAL STEEL SWELL WHEEL

Shortlist note

How to play this shortlist

This pattern has 37 words in the Wordle guess list; 12 are possible answers. The calculator compared 14,786 Wordle guesses against those 12 answers. The possible-answer label is a guide, not a promise about what Wordle's editors will choose.

Previously used by Wordle: DWELL (September 7, 2023); IDEAL (October 19, 2025); KNEEL (May 30, 2023); KNELL (August 14, 2025); QUELL (June 13, 2026); SHELL (October 2, 2024); SMELL (March 12, 2026); SPELL (November 8, 2022); plus 3 more.

Top-ranked splitter WAMES
Average remaining
1.33
Worst branch
2
Information
3.25 bits

It is a deliberate probe rather than a possible answer here: the point is to separate the remaining answers cleanly.

Hard Mode Use SWELL instead.

WAMES does not fit this page's clues. SWELL keeps every clue shown here and leaves an average remainder of 2.0 (3 in its worst branch). Check any additional yellow-position clues in the full Solver.

Trap warning: S_ELL

SHELL, SMELL, SPELL, SWELL differ only in the second position. Trying them one at a time can use several turns; WAMES tests the family more efficiently.

Compare two plays

Choose any two plays. The figures use the same 12 possible answers.

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Pattern guide

What fits __E_L?

All 37 matching words are shown above. 12 are possible answers.

More about these matches

Useful letters still to test

S 49% A 35% W 22% H 19% T 14% I 11%

Words with five different letters

35% of the matches have no repeated letters.

IDEAL STEAL MAERL SHEAL SHEOL

Common letter pairs

EL 14% LL 7% EA 7% AL 7% EE 7%

Vowels

No vowels: 0% · one: 27% · two: 54% · three or more: 19%

Common questions
How many five-letter words match __E_L?
37 five-letter words match __E_L in this site's Wordle guess list. Of these, 12 are possible answers.
Which matching word has the highest feedback entropy?
Among all matching words, STEAL has the highest feedback entropy at 5.48 bits against the possible answers.
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__E_S __E_E __E_T Refine in Finder →
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