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

CALYX

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

As an opener, it rules out about 88.3% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈkæ.lɪks//ˈkeɪ.lɪks/

Noun

The outermost whorl of flower parts, comprising the sepals, which covers and protects the petals as they develop.

Noun

Any of various cup-like structures.

Alternative forms: calix

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 CALYX performs as a guess

Wordle accepts CALYX 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 72.2% of games, misses completely in 27.8%, and leaves about 277 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #11,817 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.80 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 CALYX 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.

4.01 Entropy (bits)
277 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
88.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 23% of evaluated openers
1.94 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How CALYX 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.

3.80 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#11,817 Rank among openers
Opening with CALYX left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.80 average. It ranks #11,817 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
28
3 guesses
738
4 guesses
1,274
5 guesses
291
6 guesses
22
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:
AL

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
72%
Green tile
24%
All gray
28%

Feedback distribution

CALYX can come back 58 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

659 answers
277 answers
204 answers
185 answers
148 answers
119 answers
117 answers
74 answers
59 answers
45 answers
38 answers
37 answers
36 answers
35 answers
30 answers
26 answers
26 answers
22 answers
20 answers
18 answers
18 answers
15 answers
15 answers
13 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers
7 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

C3A1L1Y4X8
Total: 17 points

Words With Friends

Total: 18 points

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

Strategy after playing CALYX

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing CALYX:

28% chance
Suggested:
TRONE
12% chance
Suggested:
STARE
9% chance
Suggested:
SLIER

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

27.8%
TRONE 6.26 bits
11.7%
STARE 5.59 bits
8.6%
SLIER 5.11 bits
7.8%
SIRED 4.63 bits
6.2%
SLATE 4.67 bits
5.0%
TRINE 4.78 bits
4.9%
TOISE 5.25 bits
3.1%
IRONE 5.02 bits
2.5%
TORSE 3.79 bits
1.9%
STARE 4.68 bits

Research on CALYX

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

Optimal play

Opening with CALYX, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.82 guesses and ranks #11,769 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 #5,484 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.80, at or below the proven-optimal 3.82, 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 KALIHKS.

Rhymes with CALIX

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, CALYX is a kind of roll.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
CALYX sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).