GOLLY
GOLLY is on the solver's possible-answer list and has no appearance in our globally completed Wordle history.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈɡɒli/
- Interjection
-
A mild expression of surprise or enthusiasm.
“Golly! That was a long trip to California.”
- Noun
-
Abbreviation of golliwog:.
- Noun
-
A galosh.
- Verb
-
To spit; to force up phlegm from one's throat.
Alternative forms: gollies
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
Euphemism for God, dating from the 18th century. Possibly a compaction of “God′s body”.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it GAHLEE.
Rhymes with HOLLY MOLLY JOLLY DOLLY POLLY
In a sentence
By golly, look at the time, I must be on my way.
Use GOLLY in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 85.0% of possible answers.
Wordle status
A word can be a playable guess without being a possible answer.
Playable guess
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
No completed appearanceNo appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →How GOLLY performs as a guess
GOLLY is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,384 when every answer is treated as equally likely.
Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 66.2% of games, misses completely in 33.8%, and leaves about 358 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #11,824 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.81 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe GOLLY 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How GOLLY 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches GOLLY in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
GOLLY can come back 82 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for GOLLY; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing GOLLY
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to GOLLY.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing GOLLY:
Research on GOLLY
Game-tree analysis and word research for GOLLY, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with GOLLY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.82 guesses and ranks #11,621 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 GOLLY can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.81, at or below the proven-optimal 3.82, 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.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- GOLLY sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).