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

MERIS

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

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

As an opener, it rules out about 95.1% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

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

Check MERIS 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 MERIS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts MERIS 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 87.7% of games, misses completely in 12.3%, and leaves about 116 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,248 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.64 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 MERIS 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.

5.11 Entropy (bits)
116 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
95.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 88% of evaluated openers
0.84 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How MERIS 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.

3.64 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#3,248 Rank among openers
Opening with MERIS left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.64 average. It ranks #3,248 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
82
3 guesses
926
4 guesses
1,115
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
2 vowels
Common:
EIRS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
88%
Green tile
27%
All gray
12%

Feedback distribution

MERIS can come back 112 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

291 answers
205 answers
164 answers
159 answers
147 answers
139 answers
110 answers
90 answers
80 answers
59 answers
57 answers
53 answers
49 answers
49 answers
49 answers
44 answers
40 answers
36 answers
32 answers
27 answers
27 answers
27 answers
24 answers
23 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

M3E1R1I1S1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Strategy after playing MERIS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing MERIS:

12% chance
Suggested:
CLOUT
9% chance
Suggested:
ALONE
7% chance
Suggested:
ORATE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.3%
CLOUT 5.70 bits
8.6%
ALONE 5.38 bits
6.9%
ORATE 4.34 bits
6.7%
SLANT 5.28 bits
6.2%
GRANT 4.83 bits
5.9%
GLINT 4.91 bits
4.6%
SHALT 4.99 bits
3.8%
THALE 4.68 bits
3.4%
ANILE 4.48 bits
2.5%
ANTIC 4.45 bits

Research on MERIS

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

Optimal play

Opening with MERIS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #2,443 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.79 guesses at best and is rank #1,048 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, 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

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it MEHRUHS.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
MERIS sits in the rare band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word few players will have met in print.

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