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

CLOAM

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

As an opener, it rules out about 92.9% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

Clay.

Noun

Earthenware.

Adjective

Made of earthenware.

Verb

To make cloam.

Alternative forms: clome, clomb

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 CLOAM performs as a guess

Wordle accepts CLOAM 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 80.9% of games, misses completely in 19.1%, and leaves about 170 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,607 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.61 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 CLOAM 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.

4.87 Entropy (bits)
170 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.9% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 76% of evaluated openers
1.08 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How CLOAM 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.

3.61 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#1,607 Rank among openers
Opening with CLOAM solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.61 average. It ranks #1,607 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
65
3 guesses
983
4 guesses
1,117
5 guesses
178
6 guesses
11
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:
ALO

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
81%
Green tile
31%
All gray
19%

Feedback distribution

CLOAM can come back 110 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

453 answers
300 answers
169 answers
137 answers
118 answers
99 answers
76 answers
61 answers
53 answers
51 answers
51 answers
50 answers
46 answers
44 answers
44 answers
40 answers
40 answers
38 answers
34 answers
25 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers
14 answers
11 answers
10 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

C3L1O1A1M3
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing CLOAM

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing CLOAM:

19% chance
Suggested:
TRINE
13% chance
Suggested:
TARSE
7% chance
Suggested:
RONTE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

19.1%
TRINE 6.20 bits
12.6%
TARSE 5.66 bits
7.1%
RONTE 5.38 bits
5.8%
LIBEL 4.94 bits
5.0%
STURE 4.67 bits
4.2%
TARSE 4.81 bits
3.2%
TRINE 5.10 bits
2.6%
SHIER 4.73 bits
2.2%
FRISE 4.64 bits
2.1%
RAINE 4.48 bits

Research on CLOAM

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

Optimal play

Opening with CLOAM, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #2,262 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.76 guesses at best and is rank #417 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.61, at or below the proven-optimal 3.66, 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 KLOHM. 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.