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

GANCH

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

As an opener, it rules out about 90.2% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Verb

To drop from a high place on sharp stakes or hooks as a punishment.

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 GANCH performs as a guess

Wordle accepts GANCH 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 74.6% of games, misses completely in 25.4%, and leaves about 233 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,841 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 GANCH 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.

4.51 Entropy (bits)
233 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 52% of evaluated openers
1.44 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How GANCH 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
100% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#3,841 Rank among openers
Opening with GANCH solved every answer in the snapshot within 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 #3,841 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
45
3 guesses
942
4 guesses
1,171
5 guesses
182
6 guesses
14
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:
AN

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
75%
Green tile
30%
All gray
25%

Feedback distribution

GANCH can come back 89 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

604 answers
298 answers
173 answers
141 answers
109 answers
91 answers
61 answers
56 answers
55 answers
53 answers
44 answers
43 answers
39 answers
38 answers
36 answers
33 answers
30 answers
28 answers
21 answers
21 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

G2A1N1C3H4
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Strategy after playing GANCH

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing GANCH:

25% chance
Suggested:
SOLER
13% chance
Suggested:
ALERT
7% chance
Suggested:
ROUET

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

25.4%
SOLER 6.00 bits
12.6%
ALERT 5.67 bits
7.3%
ROUET 5.43 bits
5.9%
SLYER 4.84 bits
4.6%
COURE 5.35 bits
3.8%
STIRE 5.50 bits
2.6%
SLIDE 4.57 bits
2.4%
LOURE 4.95 bits
2.3%
SERAL 4.63 bits
2.2%
ROULE 4.80 bits

Research on GANCH

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

Optimal play

Opening with GANCH, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,243 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 GANCH can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, at or below the proven-optimal 3.71, 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 GANCH. 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.