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

CUSUM

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

As an opener, it rules out about 80.6% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

cumulative sum control chart: a sequential analysis technique typically used for monitoring change detection

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 CUSUM performs as a guess

Wordle accepts CUSUM 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 60.1% of games, misses completely in 39.9%, and leaves about 461 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,241 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.82 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 CUSUM 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.

3.50 Entropy (bits)
461 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
80.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 7% of evaluated openers
2.45 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How CUSUM 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.

3.82 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#12,241 Rank among openers
Opening with CUSUM left 3 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 3.82 average. It ranks #12,241 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
31
3 guesses
713
4 guesses
1,283
5 guesses
302
6 guesses
22
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
2 vowels
Common:
SU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
60%
Green tile
23%
All gray
40%

Feedback distribution

CUSUM can come back 63 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

947 answers
341 answers
138 answers
136 answers
127 answers
91 answers
91 answers
52 answers
46 answers
40 answers
30 answers
29 answers
22 answers
20 answers
20 answers
20 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
10 answers
8 answers
7 answers
6 answers
6 answers
6 answers
5 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

C3U1S1U1M3
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Strategy after playing CUSUM

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing CUSUM:

40% chance
Suggested:
ARIEL
14% chance
Suggested:
TIARE
6% chance
Suggested:
RAILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

39.9%
ARIEL 6.17 bits
14.4%
TIARE 5.61 bits
5.8%
RAILE 5.38 bits
5.7%
TIARE 5.44 bits
5.3%
RAILE 5.26 bits
3.8%
TRONE 5.15 bits
3.8%
TALER 4.63 bits
2.2%
TALER 4.55 bits
1.9%
SLANT 4.33 bits
1.7%
ANILE 4.39 bits

Research on CUSUM

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

Optimal play

Opening with CUSUM, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.87 guesses and ranks #13,120 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.98 guesses at best and is rank #5,842 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.82, at or below the proven-optimal 3.87, 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

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it KYOOSUHM. 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.