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

DORKY

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Adjective

Like a dork.

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

Use DORKY in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 89.2% 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

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 DORKY performs as a guess

Wordle accepts DORKY 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 73.4% of games, misses completely in 26.6%, and leaves about 256 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,335 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.71 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 DORKY 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.

4.27 Entropy (bits)
256 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
89.2% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How DORKY 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.

3.71 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#7,335 Rank among openers
Opening with DORKY left 1 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 3.71 average. It ranks #7,335 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
45
3 guesses
837
4 guesses
1,245
5 guesses
211
6 guesses
15

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
OR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
73%
Green tile
33%
All gray
27%

Feedback distribution

DORKY can come back 83 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

632 answers
316 answers
168 answers
142 answers
106 answers
105 answers
99 answers
81 answers
76 answers
48 answers
43 answers
41 answers
36 answers
30 answers
25 answers
25 answers
25 answers
24 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
19 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
12 answers
12 answers
10 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

D2O1R1K5Y4
Total: 13 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing DORKY

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing DORKY:

27% chance
Suggested:
SLATE
13% chance
Suggested:
TEASE
7% chance
Suggested:
SLANT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

26.6%
SLATE 6.42 bits
13.3%
TEASE 5.44 bits
7.1%
SLANT 5.42 bits
6.0%
SAULT 4.76 bits
4.5%
TUILE 4.63 bits
4.4%
TRONE 4.46 bits
4.2%
ALINE 5.46 bits
3.4%
SLANT 5.16 bits
3.2%
SAUTE 5.10 bits
2.0%
CRIED 4.39 bits

Research on DORKY

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

Optimal play

Opening with DORKY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.73 guesses and ranks #7,054 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 DORKY can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.71, at or below the proven-optimal 3.73, 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
DORKY 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.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.6 of 5).

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).