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

ARAKS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 90.0% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of arak

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 ARAKS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts ARAKS 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 75.7% of games, misses completely in 24.3%, and leaves about 237 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,143 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.76 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 ARAKS 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.

4.26 Entropy (bits)
237 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 36% of evaluated openers
1.68 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ARAKS 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.

3.76 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#10,143 Rank among openers
Opening with ARAKS left 3 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 3.76 average. It ranks #10,143 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
40
3 guesses
792
4 guesses
1,219
5 guesses
281
6 guesses
19
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

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ARS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
29%
All gray
24%

Feedback distribution

ARAKS can come back 78 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

576 answers
255 answers
231 answers
218 answers
132 answers
114 answers
83 answers
71 answers
66 answers
66 answers
60 answers
48 answers
35 answers
30 answers
26 answers
24 answers
20 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
10 answers
9 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

A1R1A1K5S1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing ARAKS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ARAKS:

24% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
11% chance
Suggested:
ROUET
10% chance
Suggested:
TOILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

24.3%
TOILE 6.11 bits
10.7%
ROUET 5.13 bits
9.7%
TOILE 5.52 bits
9.2%
CLOTE 5.14 bits
5.6%
CONTE 4.64 bits
4.8%
COLEY 4.58 bits
3.5%
STOPE 4.64 bits
3.0%
STILE 4.53 bits
2.8%
BLITE 4.54 bits
2.8%
CLONE 4.89 bits

Research on ARAKS

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

Optimal play

Opening with ARAKS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.79 guesses and ranks #10,455 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.95 guesses at best and is rank #5,182 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.76, at or below the proven-optimal 3.79, 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 EHRUHKS. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, ARAKS is a kind of spirits.

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).