5 FiveLetterWords
Accepted guess Not a possible answer F tier for first-turn info

CUDDY

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

As an opener, it rules out about 79.0% of possible answers.

Open Solver with CUDDY Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈkʌdi/

Noun

A cabin, for the use of the captain, in the after part of a sailing ship under the poop deck.

Noun

A small cupboard or closet.

Alternative forms: cuddie, cudden, cuth

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 CUDDY performs as a guess

Wordle accepts CUDDY 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 57.4% of games, misses completely in 42.6%, and leaves about 500 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,453 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.87 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.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

C___Y C in the 1st position and Y in the 5th position C__D_ C in the 1st position and D in the 4th position _U__Y U in the 2nd position and Y in the 5th position

Explore lists that match the beginning, ending or letters in CUDDY.

First-turn measures

All four describe CUDDY 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.

3.38 Entropy (bits)
500 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
79.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 5% of evaluated openers
2.56 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How CUDDY 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.

3.87 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#13,453 Rank among openers
Opening with CUDDY left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.87 average. It ranks #13,453 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
34
3 guesses
654
4 guesses
1,284
5 guesses
351
6 guesses
28
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

4/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
U

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
57%
Green tile
32%
All gray
43%

Feedback distribution

CUDDY can come back 61 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

1012 answers
216 answers
175 answers
170 answers
144 answers
136 answers
84 answers
45 answers
40 answers
35 answers
28 answers
26 answers
24 answers
24 answers
22 answers
20 answers
19 answers
11 answers
11 answers
9 answers
7 answers
7 answers
7 answers
6 answers
6 answers
6 answers
5 answers
5 answers
5 answers
4 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

C3U1D2D2Y4
Total: 12 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Try next

TARSE SALET STONE TIARE ARIEL HAOLE

Strategy after playing CUDDY

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing CUDDY:

43% chance
Suggested:
TARSE
9% chance
Suggested:
SALET
7% chance
Suggested:
STONE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

42.6% →
TARSE 6.34 bits
9.1% →
SALET 4.91 bits
7.4% →
STONE 5.25 bits
7.2% →
TIARE 5.41 bits
6.1% →
ARIEL 5.55 bits
5.7% →
HAOLE 5.25 bits
3.5% →
TARGE 4.96 bits
1.9% →
SLART 3.18 bits
1.7% →
RAILE 4.68 bits
1.5% →
PALER 4.73 bits

Research on CUDDY

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

Optimal play

Opening with CUDDY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.86 guesses and ranks #12,810 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

No guaranteed hard-mode solve In hard mode, no strategy that opens with CUDDY can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.87; proven optimal play reaches 3.86. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.

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 KUHDEE.

Rhymes with STUDY BUDDY MUDDY RUDDY DUDDY

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, CUDDY is a kind of galley.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
CUDDY 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).