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

MAHOE

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

As an opener, it rules out about 94.9% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

Any of certain trees in the mallow family, native to the Caribbean.

Noun

Either of two different trees, usually found around the tropics.

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 MAHOE performs as a guess

Wordle accepts MAHOE 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 89.6% of games, misses completely in 10.4%, and leaves about 121 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,608 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.70 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 MAHOE 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.

5.00 Entropy (bits)
121 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
94.9% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 83% of evaluated openers
0.95 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How MAHOE 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.

3.70 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#6,608 Rank among openers
Opening with MAHOE 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 3.70 average. It ranks #6,608 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
61
3 guesses
840
4 guesses
1,225
5 guesses
210
6 guesses
18
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:
AEO

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
90%
Green tile
37%
All gray
10%

Feedback distribution

MAHOE can come back 93 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

268 answers
247 answers
182 answers
181 answers
133 answers
118 answers
103 answers
84 answers
84 answers
74 answers
62 answers
61 answers
55 answers
49 answers
45 answers
44 answers
39 answers
38 answers
31 answers
30 answers
22 answers
21 answers
19 answers
19 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

M3A1H4O1E1
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing MAHOE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing MAHOE:

11% chance
Suggested:
DETER
10% chance
Suggested:
SPILT
8% chance
Suggested:
CRONY

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

11.3%
DETER 5.42 bits
10.4%
SPILT 5.62 bits
7.7%
CRONY 4.88 bits
7.6%
SLANT 5.30 bits
5.6%
SIREN 4.50 bits
5.0%
NASTY 4.24 bits
4.3%
RENAL 4.75 bits
3.5%
HITCH 4.48 bits
3.5%
SLART 4.39 bits
3.1%
SNORE 3.80 bits

Research on MAHOE

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

Optimal play

Opening with MAHOE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #4,675 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 MAHOE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.70, at or below the proven-optimal 3.70, 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 second syllable Say it MUHHOH. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, MAHOE is a kind of bush or shrub.

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).