GONZO
GONZO is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈɡɑnzoʊ//ˈɡɒnzəʊ/
- Adjective
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Using an unconventional, exaggerated, and highly subjective style, often when the reporter takes part in the events of the story.
- Adjective
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Unconventional, bizarre, crazy.
- Noun
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Gonzo journalism or a journalist who produces such journalism.
- Noun
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A wild or crazy person.
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
Coined in 1971 by Boston Globe editor Bill Cardoso. Of uncertain origin; OED proposes Italian gonzo (“dolt”) and / or Spanish ganso (“dolt, goose”). The etymology supplied by Cardoso himself (French gonzeaux) is spurious; French does have a similar word gonze, but this is a loan from Italian.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it GAHNZOH.
Related meanings
Synonyms bizarre eccentric freaky outlandish unconventional
Opposites conventional
Use GONZO in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 74.9% 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
NoThe solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.
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 →GONZO in Connections
3 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.
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· Puzzle #1034
Reveal this appearance's category
GONZO appeared in BLUE CHARACTERS (purple group).
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· Puzzle #1002
Reveal this appearance's category
GONZO appeared in MUPPETS (blue group).
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· Puzzle #102
Reveal this appearance's category
GONZO appeared in MUPPETS (blue group).
How GONZO performs as a guess
Wordle accepts GONZO 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 52.6% of games, misses completely in 47.4%, and leaves about 598 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,990 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.90 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 GONZO 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 GONZO 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
Feedback distribution
GONZO can come back 59 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 GONZO; 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 GONZO
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to GONZO.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing GONZO:
Research on GONZO
Game-tree analysis and word research for GONZO, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with GONZO, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.93 guesses and ranks #14,210 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 4.07 guesses at best and is rank #6,949 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.90, at or below the proven-optimal 3.93, 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
- GONZO 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 relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).