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

ESKAR

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

As an opener, it rules out about 94.6% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

Alternative form of esker.

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 ESKAR performs as a guess

Wordle accepts ESKAR 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 87.2% of games, misses completely in 12.8%, and leaves about 129 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,227 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.73 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 ESKAR 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.

4.85 Entropy (bits)
129 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
94.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 75% of evaluated openers
1.10 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ESKAR 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.

3.73 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#8,227 Rank among openers
Opening with ESKAR left 1 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 3.73 average. It ranks #8,227 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
54
3 guesses
806
4 guesses
1,240
5 guesses
239
6 guesses
14
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:
AERS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
87%
Green tile
19%
All gray
13%

Feedback distribution

ESKAR can come back 82 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

305 answers
236 answers
185 answers
135 answers
135 answers
127 answers
120 answers
107 answers
100 answers
92 answers
88 answers
53 answers
46 answers
45 answers
43 answers
42 answers
35 answers
33 answers
30 answers
29 answers
27 answers
25 answers
21 answers
20 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

E1S1K5A1R1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing ESKAR

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ESKAR:

13% chance
Suggested:
MOULT
10% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
8% chance
Suggested:
TALON

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.8%
MOULT 5.42 bits
9.9%
TOILE 5.40 bits
7.8%
TALON 5.02 bits
5.7%
DROIT 4.90 bits
5.7%
SNOUT 5.01 bits
5.3%
TRIPE 4.45 bits
5.1%
TABLE 4.68 bits
4.5%
SPENT 4.76 bits
4.2%
DIARY 4.21 bits
3.9%
TOILE 3.40 bits

Research on ESKAR

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

Optimal play

Opening with ESKAR, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.74 guesses and ranks #7,448 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 ESKAR can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.73, at or below the proven-optimal 3.74, 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 EHSKUR. 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.