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

CTENE

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

A band of fused cilia on the bodies of ctenophores, used for locomotion.

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

Etymology

From the stem of Ancient Greek κτείς (kteís, “comb”).

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

Use CTENE in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 92.7% 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

No completed appearance

No appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

How CTENE performs as a guess

Wordle accepts CTENE 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 80.0% of games, misses completely in 20.0%, and leaves about 173 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,469 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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 CTENE 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.

4.76 Entropy (bits)
173 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.7% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How CTENE 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.

3.69 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#6,469 Rank among openers
Opening with CTENE left 2 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 3.69 average. It ranks #6,469 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
55
3 guesses
863
4 guesses
1,198
5 guesses
220
6 guesses
16

Composition

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ENT

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
80%
Green tile
39%
All gray
20%

Feedback distribution

CTENE can come back 96 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

476 answers
230 answers
187 answers
181 answers
117 answers
89 answers
88 answers
82 answers
82 answers
81 answers
49 answers
40 answers
38 answers
35 answers
34 answers
31 answers
31 answers
27 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
22 answers
22 answers
21 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
14 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

C3T1E1N1E1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing CTENE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing CTENE:

20% chance
Suggested:
SOLAR
10% chance
Suggested:
TOAST
8% chance
Suggested:
SOLAR

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

20.0% →
SOLAR 5.83 bits
9.6% →
TOAST 5.31 bits
7.8% →
SOLAR 5.08 bits
7.6% →
SOLAR 4.86 bits
4.9% →
SONAR 5.04 bits
3.7% →
SOLAR 5.00 bits
3.7% →
PEART 4.38 bits
3.4% →
ALIEN 4.43 bits
3.4% →
SORAL 4.78 bits
3.4% →
SOILY 4.39 bits

Research on CTENE

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

Optimal play

Opening with CTENE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,292 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.85 guesses at best and is rank #3,005 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, at or below the proven-optimal 3.71, 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).