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

DUKUN

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

As an opener, it rules out about 76.6% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

A Malay shaman or witch doctor.

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 DUKUN performs as a guess

Wordle accepts DUKUN 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 54.6% of games, misses completely in 45.4%, and leaves about 555 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,166 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.85 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 DUKUN 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.

3.20 Entropy (bits)
555 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
76.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 3% of evaluated openers
2.75 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How DUKUN 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.

3.85 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#13,166 Rank among openers
Opening with DUKUN solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.85 average. It ranks #13,166 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
22
3 guesses
662
4 guesses
1,334
5 guesses
317
6 guesses
19
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:
NU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
55%
Green tile
21%
All gray
45%

Feedback distribution

DUKUN can come back 49 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

1078 answers
250 answers
173 answers
118 answers
115 answers
105 answers
103 answers
71 answers
56 answers
37 answers
33 answers
31 answers
22 answers
20 answers
15 answers
12 answers
12 answers
12 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers
7 answers
6 answers
6 answers
6 answers
6 answers
6 answers
5 answers
4 answers
4 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

D2U1K5U1N1
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Strategy after playing DUKUN

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing DUKUN:

45% chance
Suggested:
TARSE
11% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
7% chance
Suggested:
ARIEL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

45.4%
TARSE 6.38 bits
10.5%
TOILE 5.45 bits
7.3%
ARIEL 5.65 bits
5.0%
CARSE 5.25 bits
4.8%
SLYER 4.53 bits
4.4%
ARIEL 5.05 bits
4.3%
TORSE 5.20 bits
3.0%
ORATE 5.06 bits
2.4%
STORE 4.80 bits
1.6%
SLART 4.08 bits

Research on DUKUN

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

Optimal play

Opening with DUKUN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.88 guesses and ranks #13,525 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 DUKUN can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.85, at or below the proven-optimal 3.88, 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 DOOKUHN. 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.