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

CURNS

CURNS 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

plural of curn

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 CURNS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts CURNS 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 170 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,614 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 CURNS 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.

4.80 Entropy (bits)
170 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.9% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 72% of evaluated openers
1.15 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How CURNS 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
99.92% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#1,614 Rank among openers
Opening with CURNS left 2 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 3.61 average. It ranks #1,614 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
50
3 guesses
1,011
4 guesses
1,113
5 guesses
157
6 guesses
21
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:
NRSU

Feedback chances

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

Feedback distribution

CURNS can come back 99 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

422 answers
311 answers
235 answers
146 answers
82 answers
77 answers
70 answers
67 answers
64 answers
59 answers
57 answers
54 answers
48 answers
43 answers
37 answers
35 answers
29 answers
28 answers
28 answers
26 answers
25 answers
23 answers
23 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
16 answers
14 answers
14 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

C3U1R1N1S1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing CURNS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing CURNS:

18% chance
Suggested:
DEALT
13% chance
Suggested:
ARIEL
10% chance
Suggested:
STALE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.8%
DEALT 6.17 bits
13.1%
ARIEL 5.23 bits
9.9%
STALE 5.83 bits
6.1%
TOILE 5.27 bits
3.5%
THALE 5.00 bits
3.2%
STOAE 4.96 bits
2.9%
POTAE 4.61 bits
2.8%
TOILE 4.89 bits
2.7%
MOILE 4.11 bits
2.5%
BLATE 4.94 bits

Research on CURNS

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

Optimal play

Opening with CURNS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #2,363 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 CURNS can 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 KURNZ. 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.