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

KAFIR

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

As an opener, it rules out about 92.0% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈkæfə//ˈkæfɚ/

Noun

A disbeliever, a denier: someone who rejects or disbelieves in Allah or the tenets of Islam; or more broadly any non-Muslim.

Noun

Ellipsis of kafir corn.

Alternative forms: kâfir, kāfir

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 KAFIR performs as a guess

Wordle accepts KAFIR 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 81.4% of games, misses completely in 18.6%, and leaves about 189 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,013 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.72 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 KAFIR 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.

4.48 Entropy (bits)
189 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 51% of evaluated openers
1.47 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How KAFIR 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.

3.72 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#8,013 Rank among openers
Opening with KAFIR left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.72 average. It ranks #8,013 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
55
3 guesses
817
4 guesses
1,222
5 guesses
248
6 guesses
11
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:
AIR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
81%
Green tile
28%
All gray
19%

Feedback distribution

KAFIR can come back 88 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

442 answers
251 answers
237 answers
237 answers
164 answers
142 answers
83 answers
67 answers
65 answers
48 answers
39 answers
38 answers
38 answers
38 answers
35 answers
31 answers
27 answers
26 answers
25 answers
22 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
16 answers
15 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

K5A1F4I1R1
Total: 12 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing KAFIR

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing KAFIR:

19% chance
Suggested:
STOLE
11% chance
Suggested:
SLATE
10% chance
Suggested:
TOUSE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

18.6%
STOLE 5.93 bits
10.6%
SLATE 5.79 bits
10.0%
TOUSE 5.58 bits
10.0%
SIENT 5.33 bits
6.9%
CLOTE 4.57 bits
6.0%
CRATE 4.75 bits
3.5%
TOUSE 3.90 bits
2.8%
TROPE 4.35 bits
2.7%
CONTE 4.84 bits
2.0%
SOCLE 4.56 bits

Research on KAFIR

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

Optimal play

Opening with KAFIR, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.75 guesses and ranks #8,387 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 KAFIR can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.72, at or below the proven-optimal 3.75, 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 KAFIHR. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, KAFIR is a kind of afghan or african.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
KAFIR sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.

In a sentence

We, kafir dogs, cannot comprehend the glory of Allah.
© tatoeba.org contributor bandeirante (CC BY 2.0 FR)

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); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).