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

FLONG

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /flɒŋ//flɔŋ//flɑŋ/

Noun

A mould, especially one made from papier-mâché, used to create a stereotype.

Verb

simple past of fling

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

Use FLONG in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 88.3% 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 FLONG performs as a guess

Wordle accepts FLONG 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 70.8% of games, misses completely in 29.2%, and leaves about 279 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #4,717 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.67 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 FLONG 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.

4.23 Entropy (bits)
279 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
88.3% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FLONG 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.

3.67 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.67 Spread of game lengths
#4,717 Rank among openers
Opening with FLONG left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.67 means those games clustered within about 0.67 of a guess of the 3.67 average. It ranks #4,717 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
48
3 guesses
900
4 guesses
1,208
5 guesses
186
6 guesses
11

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
LNO

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
71%
Green tile
26%
All gray
29%

Feedback distribution

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

695 answers
251 answers
195 answers
161 answers
116 answers
98 answers
84 answers
71 answers
68 answers
64 answers
38 answers
38 answers
38 answers
31 answers
28 answers
27 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
14 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4L1O1N1G2
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing FLONG

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FLONG:

29% chance
Suggested:
TARSE
11% chance
Suggested:
SALLE
8% chance
Suggested:
CARET

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

29.2% →
TARSE 6.49 bits
10.5% →
SALLE 5.55 bits
8.2% →
CARET 5.39 bits
6.8% →
TIARE 5.29 bits
4.9% →
STARE 4.82 bits
4.1% →
ARISE 5.25 bits
3.5% →
SPACE 5.22 bits
3.0% →
TIARE 4.92 bits
2.9% →
CANER 4.53 bits
2.7% →
LOYAL 4.26 bits

Research on FLONG

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

Optimal play

Opening with FLONG, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.73 guesses and ranks #7,054 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 #2,316 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.67, at or below the proven-optimal 3.73, 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).