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

BIBES

BIBES 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 bibe

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 BIBES performs as a guess

Wordle accepts BIBES 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 78.6% of games, misses completely in 21.4%, and leaves about 237 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,831 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.

First-turn measures

All four describe BIBES 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.

4.05 Entropy (bits)
237 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 25% of evaluated openers
1.89 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How BIBES 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
99.87% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#12,831 Rank among openers
Opening with BIBES 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 3.84 average. It ranks #12,831 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
45
3 guesses
670
4 guesses
1,278
5 guesses
340
6 guesses
18
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:
EIS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
79%
Green tile
30%
All gray
21%

Feedback distribution

BIBES can come back 67 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

507 answers
352 answers
231 answers
194 answers
184 answers
152 answers
96 answers
89 answers
70 answers
55 answers
44 answers
41 answers
33 answers
31 answers
26 answers
23 answers
21 answers
19 answers
16 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
10 answers
9 answers
7 answers
7 answers
7 answers
7 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

B3I1B3E1S1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing BIBES

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing BIBES:

21% chance
Suggested:
CORAL
15% chance
Suggested:
LEARE
10% chance
Suggested:
SLANT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

21.4%
CORAL 5.82 bits
14.8%
LEARE 5.54 bits
9.7%
SLANT 5.18 bits
8.2%
TRAIN 5.38 bits
7.8%
OATER 4.29 bits
6.4%
SLART 4.96 bits
4.0%
SALTY 3.71 bits
3.7%
CARNE 4.20 bits
2.9%
STINK 4.36 bits
2.3%
ROANY 4.82 bits

Research on BIBES

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

Optimal play

Opening with BIBES, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.83 guesses and ranks #11,838 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 BIBES can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.84; proven optimal play reaches 3.83. 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.

How it sounds

One syllable Say it BYBZ. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, BIBES is a kind of piece or napkin.

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).