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

GANEF

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

As an opener, it rules out about 93.0% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈɡɑnəf//ˈɡɑnɪf/

Noun

A thief; a rascal or scoundrel.

Alternative forms: ganif, ganof, gonef, gonif

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 GANEF performs as a guess

Wordle accepts GANEF 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 82.7% of games, misses completely in 17.3%, and leaves about 167 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,307 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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 GANEF 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.

4.75 Entropy (bits)
167 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
93.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 69% of evaluated openers
1.19 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How GANEF 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.

3.69 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#6,307 Rank among openers
Opening with GANEF left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.69 average. It ranks #6,307 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
72
3 guesses
834
4 guesses
1,211
5 guesses
222
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
2 vowels
Common:
AEN

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
83%
Green tile
33%
All gray
17%

Feedback distribution

GANEF can come back 100 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

410 answers
266 answers
227 answers
173 answers
162 answers
125 answers
97 answers
65 answers
50 answers
46 answers
40 answers
39 answers
36 answers
33 answers
32 answers
32 answers
29 answers
28 answers
28 answers
28 answers
26 answers
23 answers
21 answers
19 answers
19 answers
16 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

G2A1N1E1F4
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing GANEF

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing GANEF:

17% chance
Suggested:
SOILY
11% chance
Suggested:
TERSE
10% chance
Suggested:
SLART

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.3%
SOILY 5.66 bits
11.2%
TERSE 5.42 bits
9.6%
SLART 5.44 bits
7.3%
SLART 5.29 bits
6.8%
LOSER 4.13 bits
5.3%
SATYR 4.16 bits
4.1%
SNORT 4.82 bits
2.7%
SNORE 4.48 bits
2.1%
STAIR 4.04 bits
1.9%
SOULY 4.73 bits

Research on GANEF

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

Optimal play

Opening with GANEF, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #4,726 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 GANEF can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, at or below the proven-optimal 3.70, 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

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it GANIHF. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, GANEF is a kind of offender.

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).