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

BRUSK

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

As an opener, it rules out about 88.6% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Adjective

Alternative spelling of brusque.

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 BRUSK performs as a guess

Wordle accepts BRUSK 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 72.8% of games, misses completely in 27.2%, and leaves about 270 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,136 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.70 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 BRUSK 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.

4.22 Entropy (bits)
270 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
88.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 34% of evaluated openers
1.73 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How BRUSK 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.

3.70 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#7,136 Rank among openers
Opening with BRUSK solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.70 average. It ranks #7,136 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
49
3 guesses
862
4 guesses
1,194
5 guesses
233
6 guesses
16
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
1 vowels
Common:
RSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
73%
Green tile
30%
All gray
27%

Feedback distribution

BRUSK can come back 83 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

646 answers
325 answers
218 answers
148 answers
116 answers
83 answers
81 answers
70 answers
61 answers
51 answers
42 answers
39 answers
36 answers
25 answers
24 answers
24 answers
23 answers
21 answers
21 answers
20 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
12 answers
11 answers
10 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

B3R1U1S1K5
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Strategy after playing BRUSK

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing BRUSK:

27% chance
Suggested:
LIANE
14% chance
Suggested:
ROATE
9% chance
Suggested:
PLATE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

27.2%
LIANE 6.09 bits
13.7%
ROATE 5.11 bits
9.2%
PLATE 5.74 bits
6.2%
DIANE 5.13 bits
4.9%
GUILT 4.84 bits
3.5%
STOAE 4.67 bits
3.4%
HAOLE 4.79 bits
2.9%
ALONE 4.86 bits
2.6%
THALE 4.58 bits
2.1%
RULER 4.53 bits

Research on BRUSK

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

Optimal play

Opening with BRUSK, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.74 guesses and ranks #7,777 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.87 guesses at best and is rank #3,382 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.70, at or below the proven-optimal 3.74, 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

One syllable Say it BRUHSK. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

Synonyms SHORT curt

Opposites courteous

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).