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

NIFLE

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

A trifle; something small and insignificant.

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

Etymology

From Middle English nifle, possibly from Anglo-Norman. Compare Scots niffle (“to trifle”).

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

Use NIFLE in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 93.6% 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 NIFLE performs as a guess

Wordle accepts NIFLE 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 83.0% of games, misses completely in 17.0%, and leaves about 153 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #4,525 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.66 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 NIFLE 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)
153 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
93.6% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How NIFLE 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.

3.66 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#4,525 Rank among openers
Opening with NIFLE left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.66 average. It ranks #4,525 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
73
3 guesses
886
4 guesses
1,173
5 guesses
206
6 guesses
15

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
EILN

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
83%
Green tile
32%
All gray
17%

Feedback distribution

NIFLE can come back 107 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

405 answers
261 answers
189 answers
150 answers
128 answers
111 answers
100 answers
80 answers
75 answers
70 answers
59 answers
48 answers
41 answers
37 answers
36 answers
35 answers
32 answers
30 answers
25 answers
21 answers
21 answers
20 answers
20 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

N1I1F4L1E1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing NIFLE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing NIFLE:

17% chance
Suggested:
ROAST
11% chance
Suggested:
ROAST
8% chance
Suggested:
ROAST

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.0% →
ROAST 6.06 bits
10.9% →
ROAST 5.35 bits
7.9% →
ROAST 5.28 bits
6.3% →
ROAST 5.22 bits
5.4% →
SOLAR 5.15 bits
4.7% →
ROAST 5.20 bits
4.2% →
REBEL 4.56 bits
3.4% →
EATEN 4.41 bits
3.1% →
COAST 4.57 bits
2.9% →
SHART 4.32 bits

Research on NIFLE

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

Optimal play

Opening with NIFLE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.68 guesses and ranks #3,524 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.81 guesses at best and is rank #1,666 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.66, at or below the proven-optimal 3.68, 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).