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

MUNGS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 86.0% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of mung

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 MUNGS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts MUNGS 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 67.6% of games, misses completely in 32.4%, and leaves about 332 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,632 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 MUNGS 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.

4.05 Entropy (bits)
332 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
86.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 25% of evaluated openers
1.90 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How MUNGS 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
99.96% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#6,632 Rank among openers
Opening with MUNGS 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 3.70 average. It ranks #6,632 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
49
3 guesses
853
4 guesses
1,229
5 guesses
208
6 guesses
14
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
1 vowels
Common:
NSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
68%
Green tile
20%
All gray
32%

Feedback distribution

MUNGS can come back 85 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

770 answers
331 answers
186 answers
84 answers
82 answers
81 answers
76 answers
69 answers
69 answers
57 answers
53 answers
51 answers
44 answers
34 answers
27 answers
26 answers
21 answers
19 answers
16 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
9 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

M3U1N1G2S1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing MUNGS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing MUNGS:

32% chance
Suggested:
TALER
14% chance
Suggested:
STALE
8% chance
Suggested:
ARIEL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

32.4%
TALER 6.15 bits
13.9%
STALE 5.73 bits
7.8%
ARIEL 5.57 bits
3.5%
TALER 5.12 bits
3.5%
CLOTE 5.54 bits
3.4%
RAILE 5.19 bits
3.2%
TRICE 4.72 bits
2.9%
RAINE 4.53 bits
2.9%
CADIE 4.59 bits
2.4%
CARTE 4.90 bits

Research on MUNGS

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

Optimal play

Opening with MUNGS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.75 guesses and ranks #8,129 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.86 guesses at best and is rank #3,193 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.70, at or below the proven-optimal 3.75, 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 MUHNGZ. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, MUNGS is a kind of bean or herb.

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).