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

NESKI

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

As an opener, it rules out about 92.6% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Proper noun

The cursive hand generally used in writing Arabic.

Alternative forms: Neshki

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 NESKI performs as a guess

Wordle accepts NESKI 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 83.5% of games, misses completely in 16.5%, and leaves about 177 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,377 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.75 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 NESKI 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.

4.52 Entropy (bits)
177 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 53% of evaluated openers
1.43 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How NESKI 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.

3.75 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#9,377 Rank among openers
Opening with NESKI left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.75 average. It ranks #9,377 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
46
3 guesses
788
4 guesses
1,249
5 guesses
248
6 guesses
20
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:
EINS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
84%
Green tile
17%
All gray
16%

Feedback distribution

NESKI can come back 83 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

392 answers
326 answers
199 answers
169 answers
136 answers
129 answers
128 answers
114 answers
92 answers
77 answers
52 answers
39 answers
36 answers
31 answers
30 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
14 answers
14 answers
12 answers
12 answers
12 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

N1E1S1K5I1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing NESKI

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing NESKI:

17% chance
Suggested:
MORAL
14% chance
Suggested:
ORATE
8% chance
Suggested:
TIDAL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

16.5%
MORAL 5.80 bits
13.7%
ORATE 5.27 bits
8.4%
TIDAL 5.11 bits
7.1%
SLART 5.39 bits
5.7%
REATE 4.66 bits
5.4%
SLART 4.90 bits
5.4%
ROANY 4.89 bits
4.8%
TRIDE 4.66 bits
3.9%
GIANT 4.31 bits
3.2%
OATER 4.59 bits

Research on NESKI

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

Optimal play

Opening with NESKI, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.75 guesses and ranks #8,069 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.89 guesses at best and is rank #3,851 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.75, 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

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it NEHSKEE. Estimated pronunciation

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

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model.