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

KIEFS

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

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

As an opener, it rules out about 90.0% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

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

Check KIEFS 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 KIEFS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts KIEFS 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 80.1% of games, misses completely in 19.9%, and leaves about 238 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #11,009 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.78 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 KIEFS 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.

4.20 Entropy (bits)
238 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 33% of evaluated openers
1.75 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How KIEFS 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.

3.78 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#11,009 Rank among openers
Opening with KIEFS 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 3.78 average. It ranks #11,009 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
50
3 guesses
727
4 guesses
1,273
5 guesses
290
6 guesses
14
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:
EIS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
80%
Green tile
19%
All gray
20%

Feedback distribution

KIEFS can come back 77 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

473 answers
455 answers
199 answers
178 answers
137 answers
103 answers
89 answers
78 answers
56 answers
50 answers
49 answers
47 answers
45 answers
38 answers
34 answers
31 answers
24 answers
20 answers
20 answers
17 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers
9 answers
8 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

K5I1E1F4S1
Total: 12 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing KIEFS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing KIEFS:

20% chance
Suggested:
TALON
19% chance
Suggested:
LAREE
8% chance
Suggested:
SLART

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

19.9%
TALON 5.77 bits
19.2%
LAREE 5.47 bits
8.4%
SLART 5.37 bits
7.5%
TRAIN 5.37 bits
5.8%
ROAST 4.87 bits
4.3%
TRIDE 4.44 bits
3.7%
LIGHT 3.78 bits
3.3%
TREAD 4.68 bits
2.4%
SLANT 4.42 bits
2.1%
RONTE 3.98 bits

Research on KIEFS

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

Optimal play

Opening with KIEFS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.80 guesses and ranks #10,793 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.92 guesses at best and is rank #4,590 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.78, at or below the proven-optimal 3.80, 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 KEEFS. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, KIEFS is a kind of marijuana.

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).