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

KUKUS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 66.6% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of kuku

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 KUKUS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts KUKUS 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 45.8% of games, misses completely in 54.2%, and leaves about 793 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #14,811 of 14,855 openers, averaging 4.07 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 KUKUS 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.

2.45 Entropy (bits)
793 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
66.6% Avg ruled out
In the bottom 1% for first-turn entropy
3.50 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How KUKUS 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.

4.07 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#14,811 Rank among openers
Opening with KUKUS left 1 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 4.07 average. It ranks #14,811 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
13
3 guesses
467
4 guesses
1,271
5 guesses
557
6 guesses
45
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

3/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
SU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
46%
Green tile
14%
All gray
54%

Feedback distribution

KUKUS can come back 29 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

1287 answers
420 answers
133 answers
125 answers
81 answers
54 answers
51 answers
49 answers
36 answers
25 answers
17 answers
17 answers
12 answers
12 answers
12 answers
10 answers
7 answers
5 answers
4 answers
3 answers
3 answers
2 answers
2 answers
2 answers
1 answer
1 answer
1 answer
1 answer
1 answer

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

K5U1K5U1S1
Total: 13 points

Words With Friends

Total: 15 points

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

Strategy after playing KUKUS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing KUKUS:

54% chance
Suggested:
ARIEL
18% chance
Suggested:
TIARE
6% chance
Suggested:
CARLE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

54.2%
ARIEL 6.05 bits
17.7%
TIARE 5.66 bits
5.6%
CARLE 4.30 bits
5.3%
TRONE 5.24 bits
3.4%
CRANE 5.25 bits
2.3%
TRICE 4.13 bits
2.1%
SLANT 4.16 bits
2.1%
TRODE 4.64 bits
1.5%
STARY 3.76 bits
1.1%
BRACE 4.05 bits

Research on KUKUS

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

Optimal play

Opening with KUKUS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 4.07 guesses and ranks #14,832 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 4.24 guesses at best and is rank #7,426 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 4.07, at or below the proven-optimal 4.07, 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 KOOKUHS. Estimated pronunciation

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

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model.