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

FUNGS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 85.0% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of fung

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 FUNGS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts FUNGS 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 66.5% of games, misses completely in 33.5%, and leaves about 356 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,662 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.73 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 FUNGS 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.

3.90 Entropy (bits)
356 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
85.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 18% of evaluated openers
2.05 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FUNGS 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.

3.73 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#8,662 Rank among openers
Opening with FUNGS solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.73 average. It ranks #8,662 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
49
3 guesses
797
4 guesses
1,252
5 guesses
245
6 guesses
11
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:
NSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
66%
Green tile
21%
All gray
34%

Feedback distribution

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

795 answers
350 answers
188 answers
91 answers
91 answers
90 answers
76 answers
72 answers
70 answers
55 answers
54 answers
42 answers
41 answers
30 answers
28 answers
20 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers
8 answers
6 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4U1N1G2S1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing FUNGS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FUNGS:

33% chance
Suggested:
ROATE
15% chance
Suggested:
STALE
8% chance
Suggested:
ARIEL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

33.5%
ROATE 6.12 bits
14.7%
STALE 5.72 bits
7.9%
ARIEL 5.55 bits
3.8%
GLARE 5.11 bits
3.8%
CLOTE 5.42 bits
3.8%
CARLE 4.48 bits
3.2%
CATER 4.44 bits
3.0%
ARIEL 5.27 bits
2.9%
TIARE 4.63 bits
2.3%
SHART 4.24 bits

Research on FUNGS

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

Optimal play

Opening with FUNGS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.78 guesses and ranks #9,569 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.90 guesses at best and is rank #4,151 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.73, at or below the proven-optimal 3.78, 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 FUHNGZ. 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.