5 FiveLetterWords
Accepted guess Not a possible answer F tier opener

FOSSA

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

As an opener, it rules out about 88.2% of possible answers.

Open Solver with FOSSA Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈfɒsə//ˈfɑsə//ˈfɔsə/

Noun

A pit, groove, cavity, or depression.

Noun

A long, narrow, shallow depression on the body of an extraterrestrial body, such as a planet or moon.

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 FOSSA performs as a guess

Wordle accepts FOSSA 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 76.6% of games, misses completely in 23.4%, and leaves about 278 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete v5 benchmark, it ranks #12,437 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.82 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.

F___A F in the 1st position and A in the 5th position F__S_ F in the 1st position and S in the 4th position _O__A O in the 2nd position and A in the 5th position

Try next

TRICE CARLE TRINE TRONE PLATE BARON
Words starting with F Words ending with A

First-turn measures

3.96 Entropy (bits)
278 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
88.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 21% of evaluated openers
1.99 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opener: v5 benchmark

How FOSSA 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.

3.82 Avg guesses
99.9% Win rate
0.72 Volatility
#12,437 v5 opener rank
In the complete v5 snapshot, FOSSA ranks #12,437 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
38
3 guesses
707
4 guesses
1,265
5 guesses
314
6 guesses
27
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.45 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AOS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
77%
Green tile
28%
All gray
23%

Feedback distribution

66 possible patterns. Top outcomes:

552
473
185
174
158
117
84
65
55
40
39
39
30
29
29
25
24
19
15
15
15
13
12
12
11
9
9
7
6
6

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FOSSA:

23% chance
Suggested:
TRICE
20% chance
Suggested:
CARLE
8% chance
Suggested:
TRINE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

23.4% →
TRICE 6.03 bits
20.1% →
CARLE 5.46 bits
7.8% →
TRINE 5.29 bits
7.4% →
TRONE 4.40 bits
6.7% →
TRINE 5.05 bits
5.0% →
PLATE 4.63 bits
3.6% →
BARON 4.75 bits
2.8% →
PEART 3.76 bits
2.3% →
TUILE 4.75 bits
1.7% →
REACT 4.27 bits

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4O1S1S1A1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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