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

GONIF

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

As an opener, it rules out about 88.0% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

Alternative form of ganef.

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 GONIF performs as a guess

Wordle accepts GONIF 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 70.0% of games, misses completely in 30.0%, and leaves about 285 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,919 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 GONIF 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.

4.29 Entropy (bits)
285 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
88.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 38% of evaluated openers
1.66 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How GONIF 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
99.87% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#5,919 Rank among openers
Opening with GONIF left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.68 average. It ranks #5,919 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
49
3 guesses
870
4 guesses
1,215
5 guesses
208
6 guesses
9
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:
INO

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
70%
Green tile
28%
All gray
30%

Feedback distribution

GONIF can come back 91 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

713 answers
232 answers
198 answers
163 answers
130 answers
78 answers
62 answers
61 answers
56 answers
49 answers
49 answers
44 answers
33 answers
31 answers
26 answers
24 answers
24 answers
24 answers
22 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

G2O1N1I1F4
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing GONIF

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing GONIF:

30% chance
Suggested:
REAST
10% chance
Suggested:
STILE
8% chance
Suggested:
CRATE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

30.0%
REAST 6.35 bits
9.8%
STILE 5.40 bits
8.3%
CRATE 5.40 bits
6.9%
TALER 4.70 bits
5.5%
TASER 5.25 bits
3.3%
CARET 5.03 bits
2.6%
FEARE 5.00 bits
2.6%
SNARE 4.43 bits
2.4%
TASER 4.66 bits
2.1%
CARLE 4.44 bits

Research on GONIF

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

Optimal play

Opening with GONIF, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.75 guesses and ranks #7,967 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.88 guesses at best and is rank #3,707 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 3.75, 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 GAHNIHF. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, GONIF 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).