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

DOWAK

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

As an opener, it rules out about 87.8% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

A non-returning throwstick.

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 DOWAK performs as a guess

Wordle accepts DOWAK 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 74.4% of games, misses completely in 25.6%, and leaves about 291 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,549 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.77 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 DOWAK 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.

4.01 Entropy (bits)
291 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
87.8% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 23% of evaluated openers
1.94 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How DOWAK 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.

3.77 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#10,549 Rank among openers
Opening with DOWAK left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.77 average. It ranks #10,549 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
39
3 guesses
754
4 guesses
1,272
5 guesses
275
6 guesses
12
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
2 vowels
Common:
AO

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
74%
Green tile
26%
All gray
26%

Feedback distribution

DOWAK can come back 72 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

608 answers
459 answers
190 answers
174 answers
93 answers
90 answers
81 answers
64 answers
52 answers
47 answers
46 answers
38 answers
33 answers
32 answers
27 answers
27 answers
24 answers
21 answers
17 answers
17 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

D2O1W4A1K5
Total: 13 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Strategy after playing DOWAK

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing DOWAK:

26% chance
Suggested:
SILER
19% chance
Suggested:
TARSE
8% chance
Suggested:
STIRE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

25.6%
SILER 5.98 bits
19.3%
TARSE 5.57 bits
8.0%
STIRE 5.28 bits
7.3%
CRUET 4.76 bits
3.9%
URITE 5.01 bits
3.8%
TALER 4.67 bits
3.4%
BARON 4.56 bits
2.7%
RAILE 4.55 bits
2.2%
SIENT 4.99 bits
2.0%
CRUSE 4.45 bits

Research on DOWAK

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

Optimal play

Opening with DOWAK, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.78 guesses and ranks #9,668 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 DOWAK can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.77, at or below the proven-optimal 3.78, 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 DOWUHK. 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.