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

DURNS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 92.5% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of durn

Noun

Alternative form of dern (“a doorpost”).

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 DURNS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts DURNS 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 179 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,145 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 DURNS 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.

4.69 Entropy (bits)
179 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 65% of evaluated openers
1.26 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How DURNS 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
99.87% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#2,145 Rank among openers
Opening with DURNS left 3 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 3.62 average. It ranks #2,145 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
57
3 guesses
973
4 guesses
1,140
5 guesses
163
6 guesses
18
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:
NRSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
27%
All gray
18%

Feedback distribution

DURNS can come back 95 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

435 answers
302 answers
254 answers
165 answers
90 answers
82 answers
80 answers
66 answers
63 answers
61 answers
56 answers
51 answers
42 answers
41 answers
39 answers
36 answers
29 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

D2U1R1N1S1
Total: 6 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Strategy after playing DURNS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing DURNS:

18% chance
Suggested:
OLATE
13% chance
Suggested:
OLATE
11% chance
Suggested:
STALE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

18.3%
OLATE 6.03 bits
12.7%
OLATE 5.27 bits
10.7%
STALE 5.78 bits
7.0%
CANOE 5.35 bits
3.8%
MAILE 5.38 bits
3.5%
STOAE 4.89 bits
3.4%
POTAE 4.72 bits
2.8%
TOILE 4.76 bits
2.7%
PLATE 4.93 bits
2.6%
MOILE 4.17 bits

Research on DURNS

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

Optimal play

Opening with DURNS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #2,352 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 DURNS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.62, at or below the proven-optimal 3.66, 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

One syllable Say it DURNZ. 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.