What this lab measures
A color row is a five-part constraint, not five independent hints. The lab scores the supplied guess against the supplied answer, then tests every five-letter entry in the Unwordle.online dictionary. A candidate counts only when all five color results match in the same order. The total therefore shows how many dictionary words satisfy that complete row—not how many merely share some letters.
This is useful when an Unwordle row appears to allow more than one reconstruction. If two words produce the identical pattern, either can satisfy that row in the game. The lab exposes that ambiguity instead of suggesting there is always one intended word.
How green, yellow, and gray are calculated
Scoring happens in two passes. First, a letter in the correct position becomes green and consumes one copy of that letter from the answer. Second, the remaining guess letters are checked from left to right. A letter becomes yellow only when an unused copy remains elsewhere in the answer. Every other tile becomes gray.
This order matters most for repeated letters. With APPLE as the answer, PUPPY does not receive a positive clue for every P. The scorer first reserves the exact-position P, then assigns only the remaining available P to another position. An extra P becomes gray because both answer copies have already been counted. Gray can therefore mean either “not in the answer” or “more copies were guessed than the answer contains.”
How to use the results while solving
- Fix every green letter in its exact position.
- Keep each yellow letter in the answer, but move that copy away from its shown position.
- Count repeated letters before treating a gray copy as completely absent.
- Compare the whole five-tile sequence, not only the number of greens or yellows.
Five tiles with three possible states have 35, or 243, possible raw color sequences. Dictionary rules, letter counts, and the chosen answer make many sequences impossible and leave others with several valid words. That is why the candidate total is evidence about one concrete pattern rather than a universal difficulty score.
New to the clues? Start with the duplicate-letter rules. For a complete solving routine, use the tested reverse Wordle strategy, then return here to verify a difficult row.
Method and limitations
The lab uses the same browser scoring function and word list as Daily Unwordle, the Daily Archive, Unlimited, and Custom Unwordle. It performs a direct deterministic scan: no language model, popularity ranking, external search result, or hidden player data changes the answer.
For a wider view of how candidate words group across all complete patterns, see the Unwordle Pattern Statistics explorer.
The dictionary is broad and includes uncommon forms, so a listed match may be unfamiliar. A match means only that the word is present in this site's list and produces the requested pattern. It is not a claim that the word is common, recommended, or accepted by another publisher's game.
Source and responsibility
Unwordle.online maintains this interactive tool and is responsible for its explanations and implementation. The five-letter dictionary is sourced from tabatkins/wordle-list under the MIT License; details appear in the third-party notices. The reverse-puzzle concept was informed by the VaustXIII/unwordle Python prototype, as described on the About page.
This is an independent, fan-made reference. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the New York Times and does not claim to be an official Wordle tool. Last updated September 7, 2026.