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

FAGIN

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

As an opener, it rules out about 90.1% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

Alternative form of Fagin.

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 FAGIN performs as a guess

Wordle accepts FAGIN 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 76.4% of games, misses completely in 23.6%, and leaves about 235 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,705 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 FAGIN 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.

4.44 Entropy (bits)
235 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 48% of evaluated openers
1.51 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FAGIN 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
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#5,705 Rank among openers
Opening with FAGIN left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.68 average. It ranks #5,705 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
61
3 guesses
861
4 guesses
1,208
5 guesses
211
6 guesses
11
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:
AIN

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
30%
All gray
24%

Feedback distribution

FAGIN can come back 99 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

560 answers
348 answers
218 answers
166 answers
134 answers
70 answers
66 answers
60 answers
52 answers
43 answers
40 answers
36 answers
32 answers
31 answers
28 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
17 answers
17 answers
17 answers
14 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4A1G2I1N1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing FAGIN

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FAGIN:

24% chance
Suggested:
SOREL
15% chance
Suggested:
REAST
9% chance
Suggested:
STILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

23.6%
SOREL 6.08 bits
14.7%
REAST 5.64 bits
9.2%
STILE 5.32 bits
7.0%
TORSE 4.82 bits
5.6%
ROUTE 5.21 bits
2.9%
TRIPE 4.47 bits
2.8%
LOURE 5.15 bits
2.5%
CLOTE 4.63 bits
2.2%
SLAKE 4.40 bits
1.8%
SOLER 4.66 bits

Research on FAGIN

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

Optimal play

Opening with FAGIN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.73 guesses and ranks #7,111 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 FAGIN can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.68, at or below the proven-optimal 3.73, 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 FAYGIHN.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
FAGIN sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).