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

DUNSH

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Verb

Alternative spelling of dunch.

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

Use DUNSH in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 89.5% 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

No completed appearance

No appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

How DUNSH performs as a guess

Wordle accepts DUNSH 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 72.4% of games, misses completely in 27.6%, and leaves about 250 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,271 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.62 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 DUNSH 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.

4.39 Entropy (bits)
250 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
89.5% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How DUNSH 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.

3.62 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.67 Spread of game lengths
#2,271 Rank among openers
Opening with DUNSH 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 3.62 average. It ranks #2,271 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
51
3 guesses
973
4 guesses
1,147
5 guesses
170
6 guesses
11

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
NSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
72%
Green tile
27%
All gray
28%

Feedback distribution

DUNSH can come back 88 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

657 answers
214 answers
200 answers
136 answers
101 answers
93 answers
87 answers
86 answers
73 answers
65 answers
62 answers
60 answers
43 answers
40 answers
39 answers
27 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
16 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

D2U1N1S1H4
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing DUNSH

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing DUNSH:

28% chance
Suggested:
ALTER
9% chance
Suggested:
PLATE
8% chance
Suggested:
ARIEL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

27.6% →
ALTER 6.15 bits
9.0% →
PLATE 5.75 bits
8.4% →
ARIEL 5.63 bits
5.7% →
ARIEL 5.66 bits
4.2% →
TIARE 5.49 bits
3.9% →
ROATE 5.05 bits
3.6% →
BALER 4.59 bits
3.6% →
PROLE 5.17 bits
3.1% →
MOILE 4.66 bits
2.7% →
ARIEL 5.17 bits

Research on DUNSH

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

Optimal play

Opening with DUNSH, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #5,165 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 DUNSH can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.62, at or below the proven-optimal 3.70, 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT).