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

NIMBI

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

As an opener, it rules out about 79.2% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of nimbus

Alternative forms: nimbuses

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 NIMBI performs as a guess

Wordle accepts NIMBI 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 58.6% of games, misses completely in 41.4%, and leaves about 494 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,715 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.88 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 NIMBI 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.

3.25 Entropy (bits)
494 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
79.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 3% of evaluated openers
2.70 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How NIMBI 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.

3.88 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#13,715 Rank among openers
Opening with NIMBI left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.88 average. It ranks #13,715 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
26
3 guesses
626
4 guesses
1,326
5 guesses
353
6 guesses
21
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

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
IN

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
59%
Green tile
14%
All gray
41%

Feedback distribution

NIMBI can come back 49 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

983 answers
282 answers
231 answers
142 answers
141 answers
114 answers
114 answers
37 answers
36 answers
33 answers
28 answers
26 answers
23 answers
22 answers
16 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers
8 answers
6 answers
5 answers
5 answers
4 answers
4 answers
4 answers
3 answers
3 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

N1I1M3B3I1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing NIMBI

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing NIMBI:

41% chance
Suggested:
TARSE
12% chance
Suggested:
SOARE
10% chance
Suggested:
TRACE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

41.4%
TARSE 6.36 bits
11.9%
SOARE 5.43 bits
9.7%
TRACE 5.45 bits
6.0%
ALURE 5.51 bits
5.9%
SOARE 5.46 bits
4.8%
SATED 4.48 bits
4.8%
ATONE 4.50 bits
1.6%
SLADE 3.62 bits
1.5%
CARSE 4.42 bits
1.4%
POTAE 3.98 bits

Research on NIMBI

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

Optimal play

Opening with NIMBI, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.89 guesses and ranks #13,635 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 4.01 guesses at best and is rank #6,295 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.88, at or below the proven-optimal 3.89, 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 NIHMBEE. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, NIMBI is a kind of cloud or light.

Synonyms GLORY halo aura

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).