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

CLOUS

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of clou

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Use CLOUS in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 92.6% of possible answers.

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 CLOUS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts CLOUS 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 79.8% of games, misses completely in 20.2%, and leaves about 175 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,829 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.63 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 CLOUS 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.

4.77 Entropy (bits)
175 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.6% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How CLOUS 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.

3.63 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#2,829 Rank among openers
Opening with CLOUS left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.63 average. It ranks #2,829 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
53
3 guesses
962
4 guesses
1,143
5 guesses
182
6 guesses
13

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
LOSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
80%
Green tile
27%
All gray
20%

Feedback distribution

CLOUS can come back 100 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

480 answers
231 answers
189 answers
180 answers
111 answers
92 answers
85 answers
69 answers
68 answers
64 answers
62 answers
57 answers
52 answers
44 answers
41 answers
39 answers
25 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
20 answers
20 answers
18 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers
12 answers
12 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

C3L1O1U1S1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing CLOUS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing CLOUS:

20% chance
Suggested:
TIARE
10% chance
Suggested:
TIARE
8% chance
Suggested:
RAILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

20.2%
TIARE 6.14 bits
9.7%
TIARE 5.75 bits
8.0%
RAILE 5.25 bits
7.6%
RONTE 5.42 bits
4.7%
TRADE 5.00 bits
3.9%
TIARE 5.31 bits
3.6%
BRANE 4.69 bits
2.9%
BRANE 4.68 bits
2.9%
IRATE 5.14 bits
2.7%
STANE 4.37 bits

Research on CLOUS

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

Optimal play

Opening with CLOUS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.68 guesses and ranks #3,173 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.80 guesses at best and is rank #1,323 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.63, at or below the proven-optimal 3.68, 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT).