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

LOUPE

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

As an opener, it rules out about 94.5% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /luːp/

Noun

A magnifying glass, usually mounted in an eyepiece, often used by jewellers and watchmakers.

Noun

A type of short-range binoculars used by surgeons and dentists.

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 LOUPE performs as a guess

Wordle accepts LOUPE 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 86.6% of games, misses completely in 13.4%, and leaves about 130 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,823 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.65 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 LOUPE 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.

5.04 Entropy (bits)
130 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
94.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 85% of evaluated openers
0.91 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How LOUPE 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.

3.65 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#3,823 Rank among openers
Opening with LOUPE 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 3.65 average. It ranks #3,823 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
70
3 guesses
907
4 guesses
1,168
5 guesses
194
6 guesses
15
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:
ELOU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
87%
Green tile
37%
All gray
13%

Feedback distribution

LOUPE can come back 106 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

317 answers
292 answers
149 answers
147 answers
143 answers
102 answers
96 answers
95 answers
63 answers
53 answers
53 answers
48 answers
47 answers
43 answers
37 answers
35 answers
34 answers
34 answers
31 answers
30 answers
29 answers
27 answers
26 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
22 answers
22 answers
18 answers
16 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

L1O1U1P3E1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing LOUPE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing LOUPE:

13% chance
Suggested:
SAINT
12% chance
Suggested:
DETER
6% chance
Suggested:
STAIR

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

13.4%
SAINT 5.86 bits
12.3%
DETER 5.49 bits
6.3%
STAIR 4.96 bits
6.2%
ARSON 5.43 bits
6.0%
STALL 4.99 bits
4.3%
STARY 4.34 bits
4.0%
FETAL 4.38 bits
4.0%
SNARY 4.65 bits
2.7%
STRIP 4.97 bits
2.2%
SABLE 3.87 bits

Research on LOUPE

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

Optimal play

Opening with LOUPE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #2,012 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.80 guesses at best and is rank #1,343 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, at or below the proven-optimal 3.66, 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 LOOP.

Rhymes with GROUP SCOOP TROOP SNOOP COUPE

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, LOUPE is a kind of microscope.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
LOUPE 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).