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

GOOLY

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

As an opener, it rules out about 85.3% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈɡuːli/

Noun

singular of goolies: a testicle.

Noun

A pebble, a small rock.

Alternative forms: goolie, ghoulie

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 GOOLY performs as a guess

Wordle accepts GOOLY 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 66.2% of games, misses completely in 33.8%, and leaves about 350 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #11,303 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.79 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 GOOLY 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.

3.94 Entropy (bits)
350 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
85.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 20% of evaluated openers
2.01 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How GOOLY 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.

3.79 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.74 Spread of game lengths
#11,303 Rank among openers
Opening with GOOLY left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.74 means those games clustered within about 0.74 of a guess of the 3.79 average. It ranks #11,303 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
45
3 guesses
773
4 guesses
1,186
5 guesses
323
6 guesses
25
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

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
LO

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
66%
Green tile
40%
All gray
34%

Feedback distribution

GOOLY can come back 76 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

802 answers
292 answers
189 answers
117 answers
117 answers
109 answers
92 answers
79 answers
46 answers
40 answers
35 answers
35 answers
32 answers
24 answers
24 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
9 answers
8 answers
8 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

G2O1O1L1Y4
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing GOOLY

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing GOOLY:

34% chance
Suggested:
RAISE
12% chance
Suggested:
RAISE
8% chance
Suggested:
TARSE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

33.8%
RAISE 6.20 bits
12.3%
RAISE 5.43 bits
8.0%
TARSE 4.86 bits
4.9%
CATER 5.36 bits
4.9%
CRUET 4.99 bits
4.6%
CRATE 4.99 bits
3.9%
RAINE 5.32 bits
3.3%
SAUTE 4.82 bits
1.9%
TRADE 4.62 bits
1.7%
SALUE 3.92 bits

Research on GOOLY

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

Optimal play

Opening with GOOLY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.81 guesses and ranks #11,119 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 GOOLY can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.79, at or below the proven-optimal 3.81, 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 GOOLEE. Estimated pronunciation

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

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model.