KEFIR
Yes, KEFIR was the Wordle answer on August 13, 2025 (Wordle #1516).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /kəˈfɪə(ɹ)//ˈkiːfə(ɹ)//ˈkɛfə(ɹ)/
- Noun
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A fermented milk drink from the Caucasus and Eastern Europe, similar to yogurt but more liquid.
- Noun
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Alternative form of kafir.
Alternative forms: keefir, kephir
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Use KEFIR in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 92.2% of possible answers.
Wordle status
A word can be a playable guess without being a possible answer.
Playable guess
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Used oncePast Wordle answer: August 13, 2025 (#1516).
See the full page for that puzzle: August 13, 2025 (#1516).
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →How KEFIR performs as a guess
KEFIR is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,375 when every answer is treated as equally likely.
Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 81.7% of games, misses completely in 18.3%, and leaves about 186 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,805 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe KEFIR 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How KEFIR 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches KEFIR in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
KEFIR can come back 83 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for KEFIR; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing KEFIR
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to KEFIR.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing KEFIR:
Research on KEFIR
Game-tree analysis and word research for KEFIR, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with KEFIR, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses and ranks #8,690 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 KEFIR can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.72, at or below the proven-optimal 3.76, 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.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- KEFIR 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
Few know the benefits of kefir.
The kefir had already gone bad.
Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).