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

FLEAM

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /fliːm/

Noun

A sharp instrument used to open a vein, to lance gums, or the like.

Noun

The watercourse or runoff from a mill; millstream

Alternative forms: phleam, fleem

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

Etymology

From Middle English fleme, fleom, from Old French flieme, flemie (“open vein”), probably via a Proto-Germanic source (compare Old Saxon flēma, Old High German fliotuma, fliodema, Old English flȳtme (“fleam, lancet”)), borrowed from Vulgar Latin fletoma, *fletomus, from Late Latin flebotomus, phlebotomus, from Ancient Greek φλεβοτόμον (phlebotómon). Compare French flamme, Dutch vlijm, German Fliete, Danish flitte (“fleam”). Doublet of phlebotome.

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

Use FLEAM in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 92.3% 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 FLEAM performs as a guess

Wordle accepts FLEAM 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 83.4% of games, misses completely in 16.6%, and leaves about 183 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,331 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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 FLEAM 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.

4.65 Entropy (bits)
183 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.3% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FLEAM 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.

3.69 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#6,331 Rank among openers
Opening with FLEAM 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 3.69 average. It ranks #6,331 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
74
3 guesses
814
4 guesses
1,246
5 guesses
203
6 guesses
16

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AEL

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
83%
Green tile
25%
All gray
17%

Feedback distribution

FLEAM can come back 102 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

395 answers
358 answers
263 answers
167 answers
113 answers
84 answers
83 answers
75 answers
64 answers
54 answers
48 answers
48 answers
41 answers
37 answers
35 answers
33 answers
32 answers
24 answers
23 answers
23 answers
20 answers
20 answers
18 answers
18 answers
18 answers
16 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4L1E1A1M3
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing FLEAM

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FLEAM:

17% chance
Suggested:
SNORT
15% chance
Suggested:
TORSE
11% chance
Suggested:
TRAIN

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

16.6% →
SNORT 5.97 bits
15.0% →
TORSE 5.43 bits
11.0% →
TRAIN 5.32 bits
7.0% →
STARE 4.83 bits
4.7% →
SILLY 4.85 bits
3.5% →
BOREE 4.19 bits
3.5% →
SETER 4.82 bits
3.1% →
MUSTY 4.70 bits
2.7% →
SAULT 4.09 bits
2.3% →
LAPSE 3.94 bits

Research on FLEAM

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

Optimal play

Opening with FLEAM, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.74 guesses and ranks #7,397 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.83 guesses at best and is rank #2,357 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT).