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

JIAOS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 92.8% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of jiao

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 JIAOS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts JIAOS 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 87.0% of games, misses completely in 13.0%, and leaves about 170 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,445 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.82 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 JIAOS 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.

4.34 Entropy (bits)
170 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.8% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 41% of evaluated openers
1.61 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How JIAOS 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.

3.82 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#12,445 Rank among openers
Opening with JIAOS left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.73 means those games clustered within about 0.73 of a guess of the 3.82 average. It ranks #12,445 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
48
3 guesses
695
4 guesses
1,265
5 guesses
312
6 guesses
32
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
3 vowels
Common:
AIOS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
87%
Green tile
29%
All gray
13%

Feedback distribution

JIAOS can come back 68 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

309 answers
296 answers
271 answers
195 answers
150 answers
141 answers
131 answers
100 answers
93 answers
82 answers
79 answers
75 answers
66 answers
49 answers
39 answers
38 answers
26 answers
26 answers
16 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
9 answers
8 answers
8 answers
7 answers
6 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

J8I1A1O1S1
Total: 12 points

Words With Friends

Total: 14 points

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

Strategy after playing JIAOS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing JIAOS:

13% chance
Suggested:
CRUEL
12% chance
Suggested:
TALER
11% chance
Suggested:
TRONE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

13.0%
CRUEL 5.55 bits
12.5%
TALER 5.40 bits
11.4%
TRONE 5.10 bits
8.2%
TRINE 5.43 bits
6.3%
TRUCE 4.92 bits
5.9%
SPURT 5.10 bits
5.5%
RONTE 4.25 bits
4.2%
THALE 4.16 bits
3.9%
STORE 4.56 bits
3.5%
SALET 4.69 bits

Research on JIAOS

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

Optimal play

Opening with JIAOS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.84 guesses and ranks #12,388 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.99 guesses at best and is rank #6,108 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.82, at or below the proven-optimal 3.84, 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 JYOHS. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, JIAOS is a kind of unit.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model; Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0).