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

HOUFS

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

No dictionary definition for HOUFS is recorded in our sourced data.

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

Meaning and pronunciation

We do not have a sourced definition for this word yet.

Check HOUFS on Wiktionary or report a missing entry.

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 HOUFS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts HOUFS 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 70.9% of games, misses completely in 29.1%, and leaves about 285 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,854 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.74 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 HOUFS 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.

4.13 Entropy (bits)
285 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
88.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 29% of evaluated openers
1.81 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How HOUFS 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.

3.74 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#8,854 Rank among openers
Opening with HOUFS solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.74 average. It ranks #8,854 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
50
3 guesses
801
4 guesses
1,237
5 guesses
250
6 guesses
16
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:
OSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
71%
Green tile
22%
All gray
29%

Feedback distribution

HOUFS can come back 82 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

690 answers
264 answers
216 answers
147 answers
142 answers
120 answers
78 answers
65 answers
60 answers
56 answers
44 answers
39 answers
36 answers
31 answers
30 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
18 answers
17 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
11 answers
11 answers
9 answers
9 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

H4O1U1F4S1
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing HOUFS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing HOUFS:

29% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
11% chance
Suggested:
PLATE
9% chance
Suggested:
RAINE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

29.1%
RAILE 6.13 bits
11.1%
PLATE 5.73 bits
9.1%
RAINE 5.27 bits
6.2%
RAILE 5.01 bits
6.0%
TALER 4.54 bits
5.1%
TRACE 5.56 bits
3.3%
FLIER 5.34 bits
2.7%
PRONE 4.15 bits
2.5%
SLIER 4.38 bits
2.4%
TRACE 4.89 bits

Research on HOUFS

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

Optimal play

Opening with HOUFS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.78 guesses and ranks #9,895 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.91 guesses at best and is rank #4,490 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.74, at or below the proven-optimal 3.78, 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

One syllable Say it HOWFS. 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.