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

HERNS

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of hern

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Use HERNS in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 95.0% of possible answers.

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

No completed appearance

No 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.

How HERNS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts HERNS 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 87.1% of games, misses completely in 12.9%, and leaves about 120 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,179 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.64 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 HERNS 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.

5.10 Entropy (bits)
120 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
95.0% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How HERNS 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.

3.64 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#3,179 Rank among openers
Opening with HERNS left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.64 average. It ranks #3,179 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
66
3 guesses
949
4 guesses
1,123
5 guesses
196
6 guesses
19

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
ENRS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
87%
Green tile
27%
All gray
13%

Feedback distribution

HERNS can come back 103 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

307 answers
201 answers
198 answers
165 answers
146 answers
103 answers
100 answers
84 answers
76 answers
71 answers
66 answers
49 answers
49 answers
48 answers
43 answers
34 answers
31 answers
31 answers
29 answers
28 answers
28 answers
21 answers
21 answers
21 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

H4E1R1N1S1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Strategy after playing HERNS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing HERNS:

13% chance
Suggested:
ALOUD
8% chance
Suggested:
ORATE
8% chance
Suggested:
OLATE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.9% →
ALOUD 5.48 bits
8.4% →
ORATE 4.25 bits
8.3% →
OLATE 5.21 bits
6.9% →
TRAIL 5.17 bits
6.1% →
SPLAT 5.18 bits
4.3% →
PLATE 5.10 bits
4.2% →
TONIC 5.03 bits
3.5% →
ANILE 4.53 bits
3.2% →
TOUCH 4.92 bits
3.0% →
DEALT 4.67 bits

Research on HERNS

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

Optimal play

Opening with HERNS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #2,320 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.79 guesses at best and is rank #1,169 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, at or below the proven-optimal 3.66, 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT).