Possible answer Not used yet C tier for first-turn info

NOOSE

NOOSE is on the solver's possible-answer list and has no appearance in our globally completed Wordle history.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /nuːs//ˈnʉs/

Noun

An adjustable loop of rope, such as the one placed around the neck in hangings, or the one at the end of a lasso.

“Put someone's head in a noose”

Verb

To tie or catch in a noose; to entrap or ensnare.

Alternative forms: nooze

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

Etymology

From Middle English nose (“noose, loop”), of unclear origin.

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

One syllable Say it NOOS.

Rhymes with ABUSE LOOSE JUICE GOOSE MOOSE

Related meanings

Synonyms gin SNARE

In a sentence

This noose is prepared for Tom.
© tatoeba.org contributor Ergulis (CC BY 2.0 FR)
The pirate made a noose for the prisoner.
© tatoeba.org contributor Tom9358 (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use NOOSE in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 93.1% 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

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

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 NOOSE performs as a guess

NOOSE is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,384 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 83.8% of games, misses completely in 16.2%, and leaves about 164 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,780 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.76 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 NOOSE 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.

4.70 Entropy (bits)
164 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
93.1% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How NOOSE 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.

3.76 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#9,780 Rank among openers
Opening with NOOSE left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.73 means those games clustered within about 0.73 of a guess of the 3.76 average. It ranks #9,780 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
53
3 guesses
792
4 guesses
1,208
5 guesses
266
6 guesses
32

Composition

4/5 unique
3 vowels
Common:
ENOS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
84%
Green tile
40%
All gray
16%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L U M P
G O O S E
N O O S E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches NOOSE in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

NOOSE can come back 85 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

386 answers
329 answers
187 answers
155 answers
151 answers
96 answers
92 answers
74 answers
73 answers
67 answers
57 answers
53 answers
45 answers
36 answers
36 answers
32 answers
30 answers
29 answers
28 answers
28 answers
26 answers
25 answers
22 answers
19 answers
18 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

N1O1O1S1E1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 6 points

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

Strategy after playing NOOSE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing NOOSE:

16% chance
Suggested:
TRAIL
14% chance
Suggested:
ALTER
8% chance
Suggested:
LAIRY

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

16.2% →
TRAIL 5.92 bits
13.8% →
ALTER 5.34 bits
7.8% →
LAIRY 4.46 bits
6.5% →
LAIRY 4.96 bits
6.3% →
SLART 5.06 bits
4.0% →
CLARY 4.83 bits
3.9% →
ARIEL 4.71 bits
3.1% →
STEER 4.60 bits
3.1% →
CAROM 4.93 bits
2.8% →
SHART 4.47 bits

Research on NOOSE

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

Optimal play

Opening with NOOSE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.75 guesses and ranks #7,874 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.92 guesses at best and is rank #4,678 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.76; proven optimal play reaches 3.75. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.

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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
NOOSE sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 11, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 83 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.0 of 5).

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).