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

MAUDS

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of maud

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Use MAUDS in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 91.2% of possible answers.

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

No completed appearance

No appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

How MAUDS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts MAUDS 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 78.3% of games, misses completely in 21.7%, and leaves about 210 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,716 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.68 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 MAUDS 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.

4.45 Entropy (bits)
210 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
91.2% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How MAUDS 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.

3.68 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#5,716 Rank among openers
Opening with MAUDS left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.68 average. It ranks #5,716 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
52
3 guesses
867
4 guesses
1,228
5 guesses
191
6 guesses
15

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ASU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
78%
Green tile
26%
All gray
22%

Feedback distribution

MAUDS can come back 86 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

517 answers
287 answers
234 answers
161 answers
125 answers
123 answers
122 answers
57 answers
55 answers
54 answers
47 answers
46 answers
39 answers
34 answers
32 answers
30 answers
28 answers
26 answers
24 answers
20 answers
19 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

M3A1U1D2S1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing MAUDS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing MAUDS:

22% chance
Suggested:
TONER
12% chance
Suggested:
ALERT
10% chance
Suggested:
STIPE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

21.7% →
TONER 6.02 bits
12.0% →
ALERT 5.53 bits
9.8% →
STIPE 5.43 bits
6.8% →
RONTE 4.89 bits
5.2% →
DINER 5.47 bits
5.2% →
TRICE 5.04 bits
5.1% →
STALE 4.87 bits
2.4% →
BEARD 4.72 bits
2.3% →
CLOTE 4.80 bits
2.3% →
POIRE 4.96 bits

Research on MAUDS

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

Optimal play

Opening with MAUDS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.72 guesses and ranks #5,980 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 MAUDS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.68, at or below the proven-optimal 3.72, 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT).