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

FANOS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 93.2% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of fano

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 FANOS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts FANOS 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 83.0% of games, misses completely in 17.0%, and leaves about 161 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,948 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.65 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 FANOS 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.

4.72 Entropy (bits)
161 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
93.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 66% of evaluated openers
1.23 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FANOS 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.

3.65 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#3,948 Rank among openers
Opening with FANOS left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.65 average. It ranks #3,948 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
62
3 guesses
901
4 guesses
1,192
5 guesses
186
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:
ANOS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
83%
Green tile
28%
All gray
17%

Feedback distribution

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

403 answers
238 answers
215 answers
180 answers
150 answers
123 answers
105 answers
86 answers
67 answers
64 answers
57 answers
51 answers
43 answers
43 answers
43 answers
42 answers
27 answers
24 answers
22 answers
21 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
16 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4A1N1O1S1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing FANOS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FANOS:

17% chance
Suggested:
TRIED
10% chance
Suggested:
TRACE
9% chance
Suggested:
TRODE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.0%
TRIED 5.98 bits
10.0%
TRACE 5.54 bits
9.1%
TRODE 5.11 bits
7.6%
SLIER 5.28 bits
6.3%
TRICE 4.55 bits
5.2%
THALE 4.67 bits
4.4%
TRIDE 5.30 bits
3.6%
PORTE 4.69 bits
2.8%
GRICE 4.65 bits
2.7%
DRICE 4.42 bits

Research on FANOS

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

Optimal play

Opening with FANOS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,400 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 FANOS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, 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.

How it sounds

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