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

NERTS

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Adjective

Crazy; nuts.

Interjection

Nuts! Expression of dismay.

Noun

A fast-paced card game played with multiple decks.

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

Etymology

Alteration of nuts to avoid vulgar nuts (“testicles”)

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

Use NERTS in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 95.9% 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 NERTS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts NERTS 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 88.8% of games, misses completely in 11.2%, and leaves about 98 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #814 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.59 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 NERTS 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.

5.30 Entropy (bits)
98 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
95.9% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How NERTS 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.

3.59 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#814 Rank among openers
Opening with NERTS left 2 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 3.59 average. It ranks #814 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
61
3 guesses
1,016
4 guesses
1,109
5 guesses
149
6 guesses
17

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
ENRST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
89%
Green tile
24%
All gray
11%

Feedback distribution

NERTS can come back 105 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

266 answers
161 answers
160 answers
138 answers
132 answers
126 answers
99 answers
84 answers
79 answers
60 answers
54 answers
54 answers
54 answers
48 answers
47 answers
45 answers
44 answers
42 answers
41 answers
34 answers
33 answers
32 answers
30 answers
24 answers
24 answers
23 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

N1E1R1T1S1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 6 points

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

Strategy after playing NERTS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing NERTS:

11% chance
Suggested:
COALY
7% chance
Suggested:
BAILE
7% chance
Suggested:
CADIE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

11.2% →
COALY 5.66 bits
6.8% →
BAILE 5.36 bits
6.7% →
CADIE 4.29 bits
5.8% →
BROAD 5.02 bits
5.5% →
COALY 5.08 bits
5.3% →
SHALY 5.13 bits
4.2% →
HABIT 4.75 bits
3.5% →
ANILE 4.59 bits
3.3% →
SPALE 4.87 bits
2.5% →
CLADE 4.61 bits

Research on NERTS

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

Optimal play

Opening with NERTS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.64 guesses and ranks #1,296 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.74 guesses at best and is rank #237 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.59, at or below the proven-optimal 3.64, 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).