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

BOYAU

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

As an opener, it rules out about 91.0% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈbwɑːjəʊ//ˈbɔɪəʊ/

Noun

A small trench or ditch, typically built in a zigzag pattern, serving to connect or provide communication between two trenches, particularly the rear and front lines.

Noun

A line, drawn winding about, in order to enclose several tracts of land, or to attack some works.

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 BOYAU performs as a guess

Wordle accepts BOYAU 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 81.9% of games, misses completely in 18.1%, and leaves about 213 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #11,832 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.81 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 BOYAU 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.

4.30 Entropy (bits)
213 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
91.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 39% of evaluated openers
1.64 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How BOYAU 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.

3.81 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#11,832 Rank among openers
Opening with BOYAU left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.73 means those games clustered within about 0.73 of a guess of the 3.81 average. It ranks #11,832 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
40
3 guesses
758
4 guesses
1,196
5 guesses
333
6 guesses
24
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

5/5 unique
3 vowels
Common:
AOU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
25%
All gray
18%

Feedback distribution

BOYAU can come back 72 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

430 answers
417 answers
206 answers
196 answers
116 answers
108 answers
98 answers
91 answers
70 answers
57 answers
51 answers
49 answers
42 answers
40 answers
36 answers
34 answers
21 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
15 answers
13 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
9 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

B3O1Y4A1U1
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing BOYAU

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing BOYAU:

18% chance
Suggested:
SLIER
18% chance
Suggested:
STARE
9% chance
Suggested:
TRICE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

18.1%
SLIER 5.82 bits
17.6%
STARE 5.39 bits
8.7%
TRICE 5.23 bits
8.3%
SLIER 5.33 bits
4.9%
WRITE 4.42 bits
4.5%
SIENT 4.59 bits
4.1%
SLART 4.29 bits
3.8%
TALER 4.64 bits
2.9%
MANOR 4.54 bits
2.4%
SLIME 3.06 bits

Research on BOYAU

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

Optimal play

Opening with BOYAU, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.80 guesses and ranks #10,834 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.96 guesses at best and is rank #5,526 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.81, at or below the proven-optimal 3.80, 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 BOYOH. Estimated pronunciation

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

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model.