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

BUKES

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

No dictionary definition for BUKES is recorded in our sourced data.

As an opener, it rules out about 89.8% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

We do not have a sourced definition for this word yet.

Check BUKES on Wiktionary or report a missing entry.

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 BUKES performs as a guess

Wordle accepts BUKES 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 77.0% of games, misses completely in 23.0%, and leaves about 243 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #11,152 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.79 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 BUKES 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.

4.21 Entropy (bits)
243 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
89.8% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 33% of evaluated openers
1.73 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How BUKES 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.

3.79 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#11,152 Rank among openers
Opening with BUKES solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.79 average. It ranks #11,152 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
46
3 guesses
746
4 guesses
1,242
5 guesses
302
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

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ESU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
77%
Green tile
28%
All gray
23%

Feedback distribution

BUKES can come back 77 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

545 answers
371 answers
207 answers
203 answers
148 answers
93 answers
80 answers
58 answers
52 answers
47 answers
47 answers
44 answers
40 answers
38 answers
27 answers
27 answers
24 answers
20 answers
19 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

B3U1K5E1S1
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Strategy after playing BUKES

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing BUKES:

23% chance
Suggested:
TRAIL
16% chance
Suggested:
REATE
9% chance
Suggested:
SLART

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

23.0%
TRAIL 5.93 bits
15.6%
REATE 5.49 bits
8.7%
SLART 5.23 bits
8.6%
RAINY 4.27 bits
6.2%
SLART 4.93 bits
3.9%
COUNT 4.80 bits
3.4%
CLARY 4.11 bits
2.4%
CLARY 4.95 bits
2.2%
ROANY 4.66 bits
2.0%
STEER 4.02 bits

Research on BUKES

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

Optimal play

Opening with BUKES, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.77 guesses and ranks #9,246 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.93 guesses at best and is rank #4,804 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.79; proven optimal play reaches 3.77. 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 BYOOKS. 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.