WordPlay is a variant of Wordle that bills itself as a practice game. It has several likeable features and sets no limit on number of games per day.

I have a long winning streak that I don’t want to break.

I typically solve by row 4. If I don’t have it by then, my strategy calls for packing into one word the telltale letters that will allow me to solve in row 6. A few times that has resulted in two possibilities, and I’ve managed to guess right.

Now I am at row 5 with way too many alternatives.

So the help I need is this: in what word can I pack as many telltale letters as possible to increase my chances of getting my final guess right? This is a logic puzzle in that there are several if-then aspects in play.

What I have is
_ A _ E L.

Possible solutions, given what’s already excluded, are

BAGEL
CAMEL
GAVEL
HAZEL
NAVEL
PANEL

In other words, in row 5 I have to test some subset of {B, C, G, H, N, P, V, Z}. I don’t have to get all of them in (can’t). Some are redundant; for instance, either H or Z would yield HAZEL (if H, then Z, so I don’t need both). G could belong to one of two words, and by first or third position placement I would know which.

So I’m after a word that uses as many of those letters as possible, with strategic positioning if possible, so as to reduce the number of possibilities in my final row and increase my chances of guessing right.

The most I can get in is four, since there does have to be a vowel.

Are you with me? Share your brainpower!
 

Help me solve this, and I will PM you with a >>> smooch <<< every day for a week.

Topics: words, puzzles, wordplay, rescue, Wordle, game strategy, winning streak