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

NIMPS

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Adjective

Easy.

Noun

plural of nimp

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

Etymology

Origin uncertain. Probably from the plural of nimp (“a small piece, fragment, bit”), perhaps in a phrase those are nimps "those are small bits", hence "that's easy". If so then cognate with Scots nimp (“a very small piece”); both from or akin to Middle English nimpen (“to chew, gnaw, take a bite, nibble”), likely a blend of nim + nip. Compare also related English nimble (“agile, quick”).

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

Use NIMPS in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 88.7% 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 NIMPS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts NIMPS 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 72.1% of games, misses completely in 27.9%, and leaves about 269 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,066 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.67 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 NIMPS 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.

4.19 Entropy (bits)
269 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
88.7% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How NIMPS 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.

3.67 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.67 Spread of game lengths
#5,066 Rank among openers
Opening with NIMPS left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.67 means those games clustered within about 0.67 of a guess of the 3.67 average. It ranks #5,066 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
37
3 guesses
912
4 guesses
1,205
5 guesses
184
6 guesses
14

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
INS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
72%
Green tile
16%
All gray
28%

Feedback distribution

NIMPS can come back 71 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

666 answers
263 answers
215 answers
167 answers
100 answers
96 answers
93 answers
88 answers
65 answers
61 answers
53 answers
30 answers
28 answers
27 answers
27 answers
25 answers
25 answers
25 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
17 answers
17 answers
9 answers
9 answers
9 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

N1I1M3P3S1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing NIMPS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing NIMPS:

28% chance
Suggested:
ROATE
11% chance
Suggested:
STARE
9% chance
Suggested:
ROATE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

27.9% →
ROATE 6.16 bits
11.0% →
STARE 5.75 bits
9.0% →
ROATE 5.46 bits
7.0% →
CRATE 5.51 bits
4.2% →
MARLE 5.45 bits
4.0% →
TARGE 4.65 bits
3.9% →
RATEL 4.75 bits
3.7% →
PARLE 5.25 bits
2.7% →
STARE 4.97 bits
2.6% →
ATONE 4.61 bits

Research on NIMPS

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

Optimal play

Opening with NIMPS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,902 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 #1,594 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.67, at or below the proven-optimal 3.71, 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).