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

FOGOU

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

As an opener, it rules out about 78.2% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈfuː.ɡuː//ˈfəʊ.ɡuː/

Noun

A Cornish souterrain, an underground, dry-stone-walled chamber open on two ends.

Alternative forms: fougou

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 FOGOU performs as a guess

Wordle accepts FOGOU 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 56.8% of games, misses completely in 43.2%, and leaves about 519 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,819 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.89 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.

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

First-turn measures

All four describe FOGOU 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.

3.31 Entropy (bits)
519 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
78.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 4% of evaluated openers
2.64 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FOGOU 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.

3.89 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#13,819 Rank among openers
Opening with FOGOU left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.89 average. It ranks #13,819 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
36
3 guesses
629
4 guesses
1,273
5 guesses
392
6 guesses
22
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

4/5 unique
3 vowels
Common:
OU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
57%
Green tile
24%
All gray
43%

Feedback distribution

FOGOU can come back 59 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

1026 answers
287 answers
187 answers
158 answers
118 answers
74 answers
72 answers
47 answers
41 answers
40 answers
37 answers
32 answers
27 answers
26 answers
26 answers
20 answers
13 answers
12 answers
10 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers
8 answers
7 answers
6 answers
5 answers
5 answers
5 answers
4 answers
4 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4O1G2O1U1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing FOGOU

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FOGOU:

43% chance
Suggested:
TARSE
12% chance
Suggested:
SUCRE
8% chance
Suggested:
SNARE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

43.2%
TARSE 6.21 bits
12.1%
SUCRE 5.21 bits
7.9%
SNARE 5.25 bits
6.7%
TALER 4.66 bits
5.0%
RAILE 5.30 bits
3.1%
LATER 4.70 bits
3.0%
SLIER 5.16 bits
2.0%
REAST 4.86 bits
1.7%
SLANE 4.44 bits
1.7%
TALER 4.56 bits

Research on FOGOU

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

Optimal play

Opening with FOGOU, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.91 guesses and ranks #14,061 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 4.05 guesses at best and is rank #6,810 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.89, at or below the proven-optimal 3.91, 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

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it FOHGOO. 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.