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

FLOSH

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

As an opener, it rules out about 90.6% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /flɒʃ//flɔʃ/

Noun

Alternative form of floss (“fibres of corncob, bean plants, etc.”).

Noun

A flush or flash (marsh or pool of water).

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 FLOSH performs as a guess

Wordle accepts FLOSH 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 75.5% of games, misses completely in 24.5%, and leaves about 224 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #4,912 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 FLOSH 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.

4.47 Entropy (bits)
224 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 50% of evaluated openers
1.48 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FLOSH 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
100% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#4,912 Rank among openers
Opening with FLOSH solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.67 average. It ranks #4,912 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
53
3 guesses
914
4 guesses
1,161
5 guesses
212
6 guesses
14
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:
LOS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
31%
All gray
24%

Feedback distribution

FLOSH can come back 92 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

581 answers
224 answers
222 answers
210 answers
93 answers
88 answers
84 answers
68 answers
67 answers
55 answers
53 answers
43 answers
43 answers
41 answers
31 answers
29 answers
23 answers
23 answers
23 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
13 answers
13 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4L1O1S1H4
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing FLOSH

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FLOSH:

24% chance
Suggested:
TIARE
9% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
9% chance
Suggested:
TONER

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

24.5%
TIARE 6.17 bits
9.4%
RAILE 5.38 bits
9.4%
TONER 5.42 bits
8.8%
TIARE 5.55 bits
3.9%
TIARE 5.62 bits
3.7%
CRANE 4.86 bits
3.5%
BRANE 4.63 bits
2.9%
PARTE 5.02 bits
2.8%
LOYAL 4.13 bits
2.3%
WAITE 4.37 bits

Research on FLOSH

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

Optimal play

Opening with FLOSH, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.72 guesses and ranks #6,325 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 3.72, 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 FLAHSH. 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.