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

FURLS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 91.5% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Verb

third-person singular simple present indicative of furl

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 FURLS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts FURLS 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 81.2% of games, misses completely in 18.8%, and leaves about 202 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #4,932 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.67 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 FURLS 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.

4.49 Entropy (bits)
202 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
91.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 51% of evaluated openers
1.46 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FURLS 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.

3.67 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#4,932 Rank among openers
Opening with FURLS left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.67 average. It ranks #4,932 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
51
3 guesses
902
4 guesses
1,192
5 guesses
191
6 guesses
17
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:
LRSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
81%
Green tile
26%
All gray
19%

Feedback distribution

FURLS can come back 90 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

446 answers
353 answers
236 answers
226 answers
89 answers
78 answers
75 answers
72 answers
68 answers
61 answers
56 answers
48 answers
45 answers
35 answers
26 answers
25 answers
25 answers
25 answers
24 answers
22 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
16 answers
14 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4U1R1L1S1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing FURLS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FURLS:

19% chance
Suggested:
CANOE
15% chance
Suggested:
CADET
10% chance
Suggested:
STANE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

18.8%
CANOE 6.05 bits
14.9%
CADET 5.42 bits
9.9%
STANE 5.59 bits
9.5%
CANOE 5.33 bits
3.7%
STOAE 4.93 bits
3.3%
COATE 4.73 bits
3.2%
DAINE 4.78 bits
3.0%
CONTE 4.96 bits
2.9%
MATEY 3.91 bits
2.6%
PAISE 4.70 bits

Research on FURLS

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

Optimal play

Opening with FURLS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.73 guesses and ranks #7,010 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.83 guesses at best and is rank #2,285 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.67, 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.

How it sounds

One syllable Say it FURLZ. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, FURLS is a kind of change.

Synonyms roll

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).