5 FiveLetterWords
Accepted guess Not a possible answer C tier opener

HOCUS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 89.5% of possible answers.

Open Solver with HOCUS Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈhəʊkəs/

Verb

To play a trick on, to trick (someone); to hoax; to cheat.

Noun

Trick; trickery.

Verb

To stupefy (someone) with drugged liquor (especially in order to steal from them).

Noun

A magician, illusionist, one who practises sleight of hand.

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 HOCUS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts HOCUS 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 73.2% of games, misses completely in 26.8%, and leaves about 247 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete v5 benchmark, it ranks #7,152 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.71 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.

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

H___S H in the 1st position and S in the 5th position H__U_ H in the 1st position and U in the 4th position _O__S O in the 2nd position and S in the 5th position

Try next

RAILE STALE ALINE PLANE TALER CRANE
Words starting with H Words ending with S

First-turn measures

4.37 Entropy (bits)
247 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
89.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 43% of evaluated openers
1.58 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opener: v5 benchmark

How HOCUS 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.

3.71 Avg guesses
100.0% Win rate
0.70 Volatility
#7,152 v5 opener rank
In the complete v5 snapshot, HOCUS ranks #7,152 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
54
3 guesses
848
4 guesses
1,208
5 guesses
224
6 guesses
19
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.45 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
OSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
73%
Green tile
20%
All gray
27%

Feedback distribution

93 possible patterns. Top outcomes:

632
242
198
161
128
121
70
65
60
59
53
37
33
30
29
28
28
26
22
19
18
15
14
14
14
13
13
12
10
10

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing HOCUS:

27% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
10% chance
Suggested:
STALE
8% chance
Suggested:
ALINE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

26.8% →
RAILE 6.16 bits
10.3% →
STALE 5.69 bits
8.4% →
ALINE 5.25 bits
6.8% →
PLANE 4.96 bits
5.4% →
TALER 4.58 bits
5.1% →
CRANE 5.37 bits
3.0% →
TARGE 5.15 bits
2.8% →
SLANT 4.37 bits
2.5% →
SLIER 4.48 bits
2.5% →
LATER 4.46 bits

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

H4O1C3U1S1
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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