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

ERNES

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ɜːnz//ɝːnz/

Noun

plural of erne

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

Use ERNES in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 93.8% 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 ERNES performs as a guess

Wordle accepts ERNES 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 83.3% of games, misses completely in 16.7%, and leaves about 147 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,769 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.68 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 ERNES 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.

4.84 Entropy (bits)
147 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
93.8% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ERNES 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.

3.68 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#5,769 Rank among openers
Opening with ERNES left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.68 average. It ranks #5,769 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
66
3 guesses
862
4 guesses
1,197
5 guesses
208
6 guesses
19

Composition

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ENRS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
83%
Green tile
33%
All gray
17%

Feedback distribution

ERNES can come back 94 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

398 answers
204 answers
199 answers
165 answers
126 answers
113 answers
93 answers
92 answers
90 answers
71 answers
62 answers
60 answers
57 answers
55 answers
46 answers
41 answers
32 answers
27 answers
25 answers
22 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
14 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

E1R1N1E1S1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 6 points

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

Strategy after playing ERNES

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ERNES:

17% chance
Suggested:
COALY
9% chance
Suggested:
DEALT
8% chance
Suggested:
SHALT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

16.7% →
COALY 5.64 bits
8.6% →
DEALT 5.50 bits
8.3% →
SHALT 5.35 bits
6.9% →
CAROL 5.23 bits
5.3% →
GLINT 4.99 bits
4.7% →
PLATE 5.14 bits
3.9% →
COAST 4.15 bits
3.9% →
POTAE 3.40 bits
3.8% →
REACT 4.63 bits
3.0% →
COALY 4.30 bits

Research on ERNES

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

Optimal play

Opening with ERNES, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,852 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 ERNES can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.68, at or below the proven-optimal 3.71, 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).