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

FLIPS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 88.9% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /flɪps/

Noun

plural of flip

Verb

third-person singular simple present indicative of flip

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 FLIPS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts FLIPS 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 72.4% of games, misses completely in 27.6%, and leaves about 263 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,771 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 FLIPS 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.

4.28 Entropy (bits)
263 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
88.9% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 37% of evaluated openers
1.67 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FLIPS 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
100% Solved within six
0.66 Spread of game lengths
#3,771 Rank among openers
Opening with FLIPS solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.66 means those games clustered within about 0.66 of a guess of the 3.65 average. It ranks #3,771 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
51
3 guesses
911
4 guesses
1,215
5 guesses
166
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
1 vowels
Common:
ILS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
72%
Green tile
25%
All gray
28%

Feedback distribution

FLIPS can come back 83 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

656 answers
267 answers
211 answers
178 answers
96 answers
84 answers
78 answers
66 answers
64 answers
56 answers
46 answers
44 answers
42 answers
33 answers
28 answers
26 answers
24 answers
24 answers
23 answers
20 answers
18 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers
14 answers
13 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4L1I1P3S1
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing FLIPS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FLIPS:

28% chance
Suggested:
ROATE
11% chance
Suggested:
ROATE
9% chance
Suggested:
LABEL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

27.6%
ROATE 6.21 bits
11.2%
ROATE 5.72 bits
8.9%
LABEL 5.23 bits
7.5%
CADET 5.27 bits
4.0%
TRONE 5.03 bits
3.5%
PORAE 5.30 bits
3.3%
BRACE 5.04 bits
2.8%
STRAE 4.98 bits
2.7%
LIVER 4.28 bits
2.4%
SALLE 4.68 bits

Research on FLIPS

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

Optimal play

Opening with FLIPS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.72 guesses and ranks #5,941 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.82 guesses at best and is rank #1,817 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, at or below the proven-optimal 3.72, 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

One syllable Say it FLIHPS.

Rhymes with SHIPS TRIPS CHIPS CLIPS SLIPS

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, FLIPS is a kind of protocol or tumble.

Synonyms pass THROW sky switch PITCH leaf

Opposites respectful

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
FLIPS sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 2 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.4 of 5).

In a sentence

Mary is easily irritated, and often flips her lid.
© tatoeba.org contributor sundown (CC BY 2.0 FR)
My dog likes to do flips when he leaps onto the couch.
© tatoeba.org contributor Eccles17 (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).