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

BISOM

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

Obsolete form of besom.

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

Use BISOM in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 90.3% 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 BISOM performs as a guess

Wordle accepts BISOM 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 76.8% of games, misses completely in 23.2%, and leaves about 232 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,498 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.68 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 BISOM 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.

4.32 Entropy (bits)
232 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.3% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How BISOM 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.

3.68 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#5,498 Rank among openers
Opening with BISOM left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.68 average. It ranks #5,498 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
54
3 guesses
891
4 guesses
1,178
5 guesses
219
6 guesses
11

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
IOS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
77%
Green tile
24%
All gray
23%

Feedback distribution

BISOM can come back 88 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

554 answers
271 answers
257 answers
224 answers
123 answers
91 answers
90 answers
80 answers
74 answers
56 answers
44 answers
36 answers
35 answers
28 answers
27 answers
26 answers
21 answers
21 answers
20 answers
18 answers
15 answers
14 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

B3I1S1O1M3
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing BISOM

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing BISOM:

23% chance
Suggested:
CARLE
11% chance
Suggested:
TRADE
11% chance
Suggested:
STALE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

23.2% →
CARLE 6.19 bits
11.4% →
TRADE 5.19 bits
10.8% →
STALE 5.61 bits
9.4% →
CRANE 5.47 bits
5.2% →
RATEL 4.69 bits
3.8% →
STORE 4.64 bits
3.8% →
MEALY 5.02 bits
3.4% →
LEANT 4.52 bits
3.1% →
CARLE 5.14 bits
2.3% →
TALER 4.85 bits

Research on BISOM

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

Optimal play

Opening with BISOM, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.73 guesses and ranks #6,839 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.84 guesses at best and is rank #2,502 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.68, at or below the proven-optimal 3.73, 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.

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