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

GAUDS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 91.3% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of gaud

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 GAUDS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts GAUDS 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 78.8% of games, misses completely in 21.2%, and leaves about 206 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,864 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.70 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 GAUDS 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.

4.46 Entropy (bits)
206 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
91.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 49% of evaluated openers
1.49 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How GAUDS 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.

3.70 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#6,864 Rank among openers
Opening with GAUDS 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 3.70 average. It ranks #6,864 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
54
3 guesses
836
4 guesses
1,240
5 guesses
208
6 guesses
15
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:
ASU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
79%
Green tile
27%
All gray
21%

Feedback distribution

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

503 answers
279 answers
243 answers
170 answers
133 answers
123 answers
115 answers
62 answers
60 answers
57 answers
49 answers
43 answers
38 answers
38 answers
31 answers
26 answers
25 answers
23 answers
21 answers
19 answers
18 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

G2A1U1D2S1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing GAUDS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing GAUDS:

21% chance
Suggested:
RONTE
12% chance
Suggested:
ALERT
10% chance
Suggested:
PORTE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

21.2%
RONTE 5.98 bits
11.8%
ALERT 5.51 bits
10.2%
PORTE 5.45 bits
7.2%
RONTE 4.85 bits
5.6%
THALE 4.76 bits
5.2%
TRICE 4.96 bits
4.8%
TRIED 5.24 bits
2.6%
DREAD 4.57 bits
2.5%
TRINE 4.75 bits
2.4%
CROME 4.63 bits

Research on GAUDS

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

Optimal play

Opening with GAUDS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.73 guesses and ranks #6,588 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 GAUDS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.70, 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 GAWDZ. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, GAUDS is a kind of decoration.

Synonyms novelty

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).