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

FOHNS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 89.0% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of fohn

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 FOHNS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts FOHNS 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 72.7% of games, misses completely in 27.3%, and leaves about 260 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,408 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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 FOHNS 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.

4.22 Entropy (bits)
260 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
89.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 34% of evaluated openers
1.73 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FOHNS 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.

3.69 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.67 Spread of game lengths
#6,408 Rank among openers
Opening with FOHNS 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 3.69 average. It ranks #6,408 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
44
3 guesses
859
4 guesses
1,236
5 guesses
205
6 guesses
9
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:
NOS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
73%
Green tile
25%
All gray
27%

Feedback distribution

FOHNS can come back 75 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

649 answers
271 answers
169 answers
166 answers
138 answers
121 answers
78 answers
73 answers
62 answers
57 answers
52 answers
41 answers
39 answers
35 answers
32 answers
32 answers
31 answers
27 answers
23 answers
21 answers
21 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
10 answers
8 answers
8 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4O1H4N1S1
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing FOHNS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FOHNS:

27% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
11% chance
Suggested:
PLATE
7% chance
Suggested:
TALER

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

27.3%
RAILE 6.25 bits
11.4%
PLATE 5.77 bits
7.1%
TALER 5.21 bits
7.0%
RAILE 5.30 bits
5.8%
TRACE 5.63 bits
5.1%
MARLE 4.81 bits
3.3%
TARGE 4.86 bits
3.1%
SERAL 4.56 bits
2.6%
ARIEL 5.18 bits
2.4%
CANON 4.28 bits

Research on FOHNS

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

Optimal play

Opening with FOHNS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.75 guesses and ranks #8,029 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.87 guesses at best and is rank #3,332 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, at or below the proven-optimal 3.75, 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 FAHNZ. Estimated pronunciation

This pronunciation is machine-estimated, not taken from a pronunciation dictionary.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, FOHNS is a kind of wind.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model; Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0).