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

CYANS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 93.2% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of cyan

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 CYANS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts CYANS 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 81.7% of games, misses completely in 18.3%, and leaves about 161 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,656 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 CYANS 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.

4.78 Entropy (bits)
161 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
93.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 71% of evaluated openers
1.16 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How CYANS 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
99.92% Solved within six
0.67 Spread of game lengths
#2,656 Rank among openers
Opening with CYANS left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.67 means those games clustered within about 0.67 of a guess of the 3.63 average. It ranks #2,656 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
48
3 guesses
957
4 guesses
1,174
5 guesses
160
6 guesses
13
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:
ANS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
28%
All gray
18%

Feedback distribution

CYANS can come back 90 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

435 answers
239 answers
211 answers
144 answers
124 answers
94 answers
76 answers
74 answers
70 answers
69 answers
62 answers
62 answers
61 answers
48 answers
36 answers
34 answers
33 answers
28 answers
26 answers
25 answers
25 answers
21 answers
21 answers
21 answers
19 answers
19 answers
19 answers
17 answers
13 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

C3Y4A1N1S1
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing CYANS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing CYANS:

18% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
10% chance
Suggested:
ALTER
9% chance
Suggested:
STIRE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

18.3%
TOILE 6.10 bits
10.1%
ALTER 5.46 bits
8.9%
STIRE 5.58 bits
6.1%
DROLE 5.04 bits
5.2%
INTER 5.15 bits
4.0%
DROLE 4.83 bits
3.2%
TRIPE 5.08 bits
3.1%
PROLE 4.97 bits
2.9%
SHITE 4.24 bits
2.9%
LATER 4.46 bits

Research on CYANS

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

Optimal play

Opening with CYANS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #4,160 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.83 guesses at best and is rank #2,285 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 3.69, 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 SYUHNZ. Estimated pronunciation

This pronunciation is machine-estimated, not taken from a pronunciation dictionary.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, CYANS is a kind of teal.

Familiarity and learning

Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.5 of 5).

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model; Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).