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

GONIA

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

As an opener, it rules out about 92.5% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈɡəʊ.ni.ə//ˈɡoʊ.ni.ə/

Noun

plural of gonion

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 GONIA performs as a guess

Wordle accepts GONIA 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 86.3% of games, misses completely in 13.7%, and leaves about 178 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,437 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.68 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 GONIA 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.

4.79 Entropy (bits)
178 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 71% of evaluated openers
1.16 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How GONIA 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.

3.68 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#5,437 Rank among openers
Opening with GONIA left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.68 average. It ranks #5,437 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
70
3 guesses
887
4 guesses
1,145
5 guesses
233
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
3 vowels
Common:
AINO

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
86%
Green tile
29%
All gray
14%

Feedback distribution

GONIA can come back 112 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

434 answers
325 answers
225 answers
156 answers
139 answers
68 answers
64 answers
61 answers
50 answers
50 answers
49 answers
42 answers
36 answers
30 answers
30 answers
29 answers
27 answers
25 answers
25 answers
25 answers
25 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
17 answers
15 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

G2O1N1I1A1
Total: 6 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Strategy after playing GONIA

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing GONIA:

18% chance
Suggested:
SLATE
14% chance
Suggested:
SLEER
9% chance
Suggested:
STILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

18.3%
SLATE 5.74 bits
13.7%
SLEER 5.86 bits
9.5%
STILE 5.37 bits
6.6%
TRUCE 5.13 bits
5.9%
SLYER 4.54 bits
2.9%
LEAST 4.50 bits
2.7%
SETER 4.93 bits
2.6%
CAROL 4.31 bits
2.1%
STURE 4.16 bits
2.1%
SLYER 4.01 bits

Research on GONIA

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

Optimal play

Opening with GONIA, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,650 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.84 guesses at best and is rank #2,609 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.68, 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

Three syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it GOHNEEUH.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, GONIA is a kind of landmark.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0).