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

FONLY

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈfɒnli/

Adverb

foolishly

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

Use FONLY in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 89.9% 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

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 FONLY performs as a guess

Wordle accepts FONLY 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 74.0% of games, misses completely in 26.0%, and leaves about 240 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #4,103 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.65 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 FONLY 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.

4.40 Entropy (bits)
240 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
89.9% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FONLY 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.

3.65 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#4,103 Rank among openers
Opening with FONLY left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.65 average. It ranks #4,103 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
55
3 guesses
907
4 guesses
1,198
5 guesses
181
6 guesses
12

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
LNO

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
74%
Green tile
37%
All gray
26%

Feedback distribution

FONLY can come back 94 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

617 answers
228 answers
194 answers
187 answers
152 answers
108 answers
75 answers
65 answers
53 answers
51 answers
49 answers
40 answers
37 answers
35 answers
34 answers
31 answers
30 answers
29 answers
24 answers
20 answers
20 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
12 answers
11 answers
10 answers
9 answers
9 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4O1N1L1Y4
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing FONLY

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FONLY:

26% chance
Suggested:
TARSE
10% chance
Suggested:
RAISE
8% chance
Suggested:
SATER

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

26.0%
TARSE 6.45 bits
9.6%
RAISE 5.51 bits
8.2%
SATER 5.36 bits
7.9%
TIARE 5.56 bits
6.4%
PARSE 4.94 bits
4.5%
CRUET 4.79 bits
3.2%
SAUTE 4.83 bits
2.7%
ARISE 4.68 bits
2.2%
SAICE 4.58 bits
2.1%
BLASE 4.16 bits

Research on FONLY

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

Optimal play

Opening with FONLY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.73 guesses and ranks #6,614 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.86 guesses at best and is rank #3,149 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, 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).