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

FLIRS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 92.9% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of FLIR

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 FLIRS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts FLIRS 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 84.0% of games, misses completely in 16.0%, and leaves about 168 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,694 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 FLIRS 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.

4.70 Entropy (bits)
168 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.9% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 65% of evaluated openers
1.25 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FLIRS 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
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#3,694 Rank among openers
Opening with FLIRS 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 3.65 average. It ranks #3,694 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
62
3 guesses
927
4 guesses
1,158
5 guesses
188
6 guesses
18
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:
ILRS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
84%
Green tile
28%
All gray
16%

Feedback distribution

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

379 answers
322 answers
224 answers
182 answers
143 answers
81 answers
80 answers
67 answers
66 answers
64 answers
60 answers
59 answers
55 answers
45 answers
43 answers
39 answers
36 answers
27 answers
25 answers
20 answers
20 answers
18 answers
16 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
10 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4L1I1R1S1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing FLIRS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FLIRS:

16% chance
Suggested:
COATE
14% chance
Suggested:
COATE
9% chance
Suggested:
STANE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

16.0%
COATE 5.97 bits
13.6%
COATE 5.50 bits
9.4%
STANE 5.61 bits
7.7%
LABEL 5.16 bits
6.0%
CONTE 5.25 bits
3.4%
CANOE 4.86 bits
3.4%
TARSE 4.70 bits
2.8%
COATE 4.87 bits
2.8%
CADET 4.76 bits
2.7%
ATONE 4.79 bits

Research on FLIRS

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

Optimal play

Opening with FLIRS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #5,187 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.80 guesses at best and is rank #1,516 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 3.70, 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 FLURZ. 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.