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

HURDS

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

Alternative form of hards.

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

Use HURDS in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 90.7% 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 HURDS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts HURDS 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 78.0% of games, misses completely in 22.0%, and leaves about 221 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,119 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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 HURDS 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.

4.42 Entropy (bits)
221 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.7% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How HURDS 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.

3.69 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#6,119 Rank among openers
Opening with HURDS left 2 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 3.69 average. It ranks #6,119 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
55
3 guesses
896
4 guesses
1,150
5 guesses
231
6 guesses
20

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
RSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
78%
Green tile
20%
All gray
22%

Feedback distribution

HURDS can come back 91 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

525 answers
339 answers
255 answers
117 answers
115 answers
84 answers
82 answers
78 answers
71 answers
66 answers
64 answers
48 answers
46 answers
33 answers
30 answers
27 answers
24 answers
23 answers
19 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
15 answers
15 answers
12 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

H4U1R1D2S1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing HURDS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing HURDS:

22% chance
Suggested:
ALONE
14% chance
Suggested:
ARIEL
11% chance
Suggested:
TOILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

22.0% →
ALONE 6.22 bits
14.2% →
ARIEL 5.12 bits
10.7% →
TOILE 5.59 bits
4.9% →
ANILE 5.46 bits
4.8% →
NAICE 5.36 bits
3.5% →
DAINE 4.93 bits
3.4% →
STOAE 5.01 bits
3.3% →
PLATE 4.94 bits
3.0% →
MAILE 4.23 bits
2.8% →
COATE 4.54 bits

Research on HURDS

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

Optimal play

Opening with HURDS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.72 guesses and ranks #6,453 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 HURDS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, at or below the proven-optimal 3.72, 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).