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

MOUES

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

As an opener, it rules out about 93.8% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of moue

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 MOUES performs as a guess

Wordle accepts MOUES 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 86.0% of games, misses completely in 14.0%, and leaves about 148 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,235 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.71 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 MOUES 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.

4.88 Entropy (bits)
148 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
93.8% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 77% of evaluated openers
1.07 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How MOUES 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.

3.71 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#7,235 Rank among openers
Opening with MOUES left 1 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 3.71 average. It ranks #7,235 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
63
3 guesses
846
4 guesses
1,181
5 guesses
244
6 guesses
19
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:
EOSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
86%
Green tile
33%
All gray
14%

Feedback distribution

MOUES can come back 97 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

332 answers
330 answers
163 answers
153 answers
152 answers
117 answers
105 answers
89 answers
67 answers
52 answers
44 answers
43 answers
41 answers
38 answers
38 answers
30 answers
30 answers
29 answers
27 answers
25 answers
24 answers
24 answers
23 answers
21 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
16 answers
16 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

M3O1U1E1S1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing MOUES

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing MOUES:

14% chance
Suggested:
TRAIL
14% chance
Suggested:
LEARE
7% chance
Suggested:
RAINY

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

14.0%
TRAIL 5.74 bits
13.9%
LEARE 5.58 bits
6.9%
RAINY 4.35 bits
6.4%
SHALT 5.31 bits
6.4%
ADORN 5.13 bits
4.9%
SLANT 4.90 bits
4.4%
CLARY 4.47 bits
3.7%
CURLY 4.36 bits
2.8%
DRONE 4.26 bits
2.2%
STOOL 3.92 bits

Research on MOUES

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

Optimal play

Opening with MOUES, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #4,618 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 MOUES can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.71; proven optimal play reaches 3.70. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.

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 MOWEEZ. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, MOUES is a kind of face.

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).