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

ALKIE

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈæl.ki/

Noun

An alcoholic.

Alternative forms: alchie, alchy, alky

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

Etymology

Clipping of alcoholic + -ie. First use appears c. 1844 in the defunct periodical Akron Ohio Buzzard.

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

Use ALKIE in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 95.1% of possible answers.

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

No completed appearance

No appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.

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

How ALKIE performs as a guess

Wordle accepts ALKIE 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 88.3% of games, misses completely in 11.7%, and leaves about 117 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,711 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.70 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.

First-turn measures

All four describe ALKIE 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.

5.10 Entropy (bits)
117 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
95.1% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ALKIE 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.

3.70 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#6,711 Rank among openers
Opening with ALKIE left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.70 average. It ranks #6,711 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
56
3 guesses
868
4 guesses
1,187
5 guesses
216
6 guesses
26

Composition

5/5 unique
3 vowels
Common:
AEIL

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
88%
Green tile
35%
All gray
12%

Feedback distribution

ALKIE can come back 95 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

280 answers
228 answers
224 answers
149 answers
128 answers
101 answers
81 answers
76 answers
72 answers
70 answers
63 answers
60 answers
50 answers
45 answers
41 answers
39 answers
35 answers
35 answers
34 answers
34 answers
33 answers
28 answers
22 answers
21 answers
21 answers
20 answers
20 answers
20 answers
17 answers
17 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

A1L1K5I1E1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing ALKIE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ALKIE:

12% chance
Suggested:
THORN
10% chance
Suggested:
ROAST
9% chance
Suggested:
SETER

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

11.7% →
THORN 5.73 bits
9.6% →
ROAST 5.05 bits
9.4% →
SETER 5.55 bits
6.2% →
HOIST 4.94 bits
5.4% →
SORED 4.55 bits
4.2% →
SETER 4.33 bits
3.4% →
SOLAR 4.31 bits
3.2% →
SHART 4.25 bits
3.0% →
DINER 4.69 bits
2.9% →
TRINE 3.67 bits

Research on ALKIE

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

Optimal play

Opening with ALKIE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #4,078 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 ALKIE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.70; proven optimal play reaches 3.69. 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT).