5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess F tier for first-turn info

FOLLY

Yes, FOLLY was the Wordle answer on July 10, 2023 (Wordle #751).

As an opener, it rules out about 83.2% of possible answers.

Open Solver with FOLLY Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈfɑli//ˈfɒli/

Noun

Foolishness that results from a lack of foresight or lack of practicality.

“It would be folly to walk all that way, knowing the shops are probably shut by now.”

Noun

Thoughtless action resulting in tragic consequence.

“The purchase of Alaska from Russia was termed Seward's folly.”

Verb

To follow.

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

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

Past Wordle answer

Used once

Past Wordle answer: July 10, 2023 (#751).

See the full page for that puzzle: July 10, 2023 (#751).

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

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How FOLLY performs as a guess

FOLLY is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,374 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 63.9% of games, misses completely in 36.1%, and leaves about 398 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,912 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.84 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.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

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

F___Y F in the 1st position and Y in the 5th position F__L_ F in the 1st position and L in the 4th position _O__Y O in the 2nd position and Y in the 5th position

Explore lists that match the beginning, ending or letters in FOLLY.

First-turn measures

All four describe FOLLY 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.

3.70 Entropy (bits)
398 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
83.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 12% of evaluated openers
2.25 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FOLLY 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.

3.84 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.74 Spread of game lengths
#12,912 Rank among openers
Opening with FOLLY left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.74 means those games clustered within about 0.74 of a guess of the 3.84 average. It ranks #12,912 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
49
3 guesses
687
4 guesses
1,234
5 guesses
350
6 guesses
30
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
1 vowels
Common:
LO

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
64%
Green tile
36%
All gray
36%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S C O L D
F I L T H
F O L L Y

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches FOLLY in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

FOLLY can come back 79 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

856 answers
274 answers
242 answers
192 answers
154 answers
55 answers
52 answers
44 answers
43 answers
40 answers
40 answers
30 answers
29 answers
28 answers
26 answers
22 answers
19 answers
15 answers
14 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers
9 answers
9 answers
9 answers
8 answers
8 answers
7 answers
6 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4O1L1L1Y4
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Try next

TARSE TRONE RAISE SATED CRUET STAGE

Strategy after playing FOLLY

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FOLLY:

36% chance
Suggested:
TARSE
12% chance
Suggested:
TRONE
10% chance
Suggested:
RAISE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

36.1% →
TARSE 6.36 bits
11.5% →
TRONE 5.30 bits
10.2% →
RAISE 5.36 bits
8.1% →
SATED 4.82 bits
6.5% →
CRUET 4.85 bits
2.3% →
STAGE 4.73 bits
2.2% →
BLASE 4.16 bits
1.9% →
STAIR 4.83 bits
1.8% →
SWORE 3.59 bits
1.7% →
RAISE 4.50 bits

Research on FOLLY

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

Optimal play

Opening with FOLLY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.86 guesses and ranks #12,892 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

No guaranteed hard-mode solve In hard mode, no strategy that opens with FOLLY can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.84, at or below the proven-optimal 3.86, 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 FAHLEE.

Rhymes with HOLLY MOLLY JOLLY DOLLY POLLY

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, FOLLY is a kind of trait or mistake.

Synonyms madness stupidity indulgence craziness foolishness

Opposites wisdom

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
FOLLY sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 2 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 12, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 30 of 100. Raters found it difficult to picture.

In a sentence

What a piece of folly!
© tatoeba.org contributor magnificentgoddess (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Anger is the beginning of folly.
© tatoeba.org contributor Adelpa (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0).