5 FiveLetterWords
Accepted guess Not a possible answer F tier opener

ASCUS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 87.8% of possible answers.

Open Solver with ASCUS Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈæskəs/

Noun

A sac-shaped cell present in ascomycete fungi; it is a reproductive cell in which meiosis and an additional cell division produce eight spores.

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 ASCUS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts ASCUS 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 74.4% of games, misses completely in 25.6%, and leaves about 287 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete v5 benchmark, it ranks #12,951 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.84 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.

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

A___S A in the 1st position and S in the 5th position A__U_ A in the 1st position and U in the 4th position _S__S S in the 2nd position and S in the 5th position

Try next

TONER TALER STIRE DROLE STALE CRINE
Words starting with A Words ending with S

First-turn measures

3.79 Entropy (bits)
287 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
87.8% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 14% of evaluated openers
2.16 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opener: v5 benchmark

How ASCUS 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.

3.84 Avg guesses
99.8% Win rate
0.70 Volatility
#12,951 v5 opener rank
In the complete v5 snapshot, ASCUS ranks #12,951 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
36
3 guesses
659
4 guesses
1,328
5 guesses
297
6 guesses
30
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.45 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ASU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
74%
Green tile
13%
All gray
26%

Feedback distribution

56 possible patterns. Top outcomes:

603
390
230
175
148
140
110
103
67
53
39
32
31
26
25
15
12
10
10
9
8
8
8
8
7
6
6
6
5
5

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ASCUS:

26% chance
Suggested:
TONER
17% chance
Suggested:
TALER
10% chance
Suggested:
STIRE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

25.6% →
TONER 6.00 bits
16.5% →
TALER 5.32 bits
9.8% →
STIRE 5.49 bits
7.4% →
DROLE 4.87 bits
6.3% →
STALE 4.95 bits
5.9% →
CRINE 5.32 bits
4.7% →
CRANE 4.82 bits
4.4% →
DROLE 4.97 bits
2.8% →
SHUNT 4.07 bits
2.2% →
CHURN 4.11 bits

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

A1S1C3U1S1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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