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

CLONS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 93.6% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of clon

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 CLONS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts CLONS 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 82.2% of games, misses completely in 17.8%, and leaves about 152 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #194 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.57 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 CLONS 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.

4.92 Entropy (bits)
152 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
93.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 79% of evaluated openers
1.02 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How CLONS 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.

3.57 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.67 Spread of game lengths
#194 Rank among openers
Opening with CLONS left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.67 means those games clustered within about 0.67 of a guess of the 3.57 average. It ranks #194 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
58
3 guesses
1,069
4 guesses
1,070
5 guesses
147
6 guesses
9
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:
LNOS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
30%
All gray
18%

Feedback distribution

CLONS can come back 105 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

422 answers
237 answers
201 answers
149 answers
125 answers
85 answers
70 answers
67 answers
67 answers
66 answers
62 answers
55 answers
54 answers
42 answers
40 answers
37 answers
34 answers
30 answers
27 answers
27 answers
24 answers
22 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
18 answers
17 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

C3L1O1N1S1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing CLONS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing CLONS:

18% chance
Suggested:
TRADE
10% chance
Suggested:
TIARE
8% chance
Suggested:
RAILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.8%
TRADE 6.27 bits
10.0%
TIARE 5.81 bits
8.5%
RAILE 5.46 bits
6.3%
ROATE 5.15 bits
5.3%
AINEE 5.07 bits
3.6%
TIARE 5.44 bits
2.9%
IRATE 5.34 bits
2.8%
TIARE 4.85 bits
2.8%
TRADE 4.74 bits
2.8%
FRAPE 4.84 bits

Research on CLONS

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

Optimal play

Opening with CLONS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.64 guesses and ranks #1,122 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.74 guesses at best and is rank #235 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.57, at or below the proven-optimal 3.64, 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 KLAWNZ. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, CLONS is a kind of being.

Synonyms CLONE

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).