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

ELSIN

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

As an opener, it rules out about 95.0% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈɛlzɪn/

Noun

A shoemaker's awl.

Alternative forms: elsen

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 ELSIN performs as a guess

Wordle accepts ELSIN 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 88.1% of games, misses completely in 11.9%, and leaves about 119 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,829 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 ELSIN 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.

5.19 Entropy (bits)
119 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
95.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 92% of evaluated openers
0.76 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ELSIN 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
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#1,829 Rank among openers
Opening with ELSIN left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.62 average. It ranks #1,829 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
75
3 guesses
962
4 guesses
1,127
5 guesses
167
6 guesses
21
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:
EILNS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
88%
Green tile
25%
All gray
12%

Feedback distribution

ELSIN can come back 112 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

310 answers
282 answers
134 answers
125 answers
105 answers
104 answers
96 answers
89 answers
76 answers
60 answers
56 answers
50 answers
49 answers
44 answers
43 answers
42 answers
36 answers
32 answers
32 answers
29 answers
29 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
21 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

E1L1S1I1N1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 7 points

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

Strategy after playing ELSIN

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ELSIN:

13% chance
Suggested:
REATE
12% chance
Suggested:
COURT
6% chance
Suggested:
SHART

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

13.1%
REATE 5.50 bits
11.9%
COURT 5.78 bits
5.6%
SHART 5.32 bits
5.3%
STRAE 4.92 bits
4.4%
REATE 4.66 bits
4.4%
LOYAL 4.86 bits
4.0%
DAUNT 4.92 bits
3.7%
MIRTH 4.63 bits
3.2%
TRIED 4.57 bits
2.5%
DEARE 4.59 bits

Research on ELSIN

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

Optimal play

Opening with ELSIN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #2,404 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.78 guesses at best and is rank #812 of the 7,453 openers that can still 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

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it EHLSUHN. 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.