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

FALAJ

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

As an opener, it rules out about 79.9% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

A qanat.

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 FALAJ performs as a guess

Wordle accepts FALAJ 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 59.7% of games, misses completely in 40.3%, and leaves about 478 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #14,419 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.94 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.

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

First-turn measures

All four describe FALAJ 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.

3.31 Entropy (bits)
478 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
79.9% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 4% of evaluated openers
2.64 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FALAJ 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.

3.94 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#14,419 Rank among openers
Opening with FALAJ left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.94 average. It ranks #14,419 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
28
3 guesses
568
4 guesses
1,294
5 guesses
434
6 guesses
29
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

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AL

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
60%
Green tile
27%
All gray
40%

Feedback distribution

FALAJ can come back 51 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

956 answers
281 answers
265 answers
198 answers
109 answers
70 answers
59 answers
56 answers
48 answers
42 answers
41 answers
26 answers
25 answers
21 answers
16 answers
15 answers
12 answers
11 answers
10 answers
9 answers
9 answers
9 answers
8 answers
8 answers
7 answers
7 answers
6 answers
5 answers
5 answers
4 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4A1L1A1J8
Total: 15 points

Words With Friends

Total: 18 points

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

Strategy after playing FALAJ

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FALAJ:

40% chance
Suggested:
TRONE
12% chance
Suggested:
STARE
11% chance
Suggested:
SLIER

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

40.3%
TRONE 6.15 bits
11.8%
STARE 5.46 bits
11.2%
SLIER 4.97 bits
8.3%
RONTE 4.91 bits
4.6%
SLATE 4.60 bits
2.9%
SETER 4.46 bits
2.5%
URINE 4.85 bits
2.4%
TOILE 4.40 bits
2.0%
REACT 3.93 bits
1.8%
GRICE 3.90 bits

Research on FALAJ

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

Optimal play

Opening with FALAJ, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.94 guesses and ranks #14,366 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 FALAJ can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.94, at or below the proven-optimal 3.94, 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 FAHLAHJ. 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.