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

NOUST

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

A trench or other hollow area, sometimes with walls, where a boat can be hauled up and left ashore.

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

Etymology

From the (unattested) Norn reflex of Old Norse naust (“boathouse”). Cognate with Faroese neyst, Norwegian naust, Danish nøst (“boat-shed”).

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

Use NOUST in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 93.3% 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 NOUST performs as a guess

Wordle accepts NOUST 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 79.6% of games, misses completely in 20.4%, and leaves about 160 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #576 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.59 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 NOUST 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.

5.00 Entropy (bits)
160 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
93.3% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How NOUST 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.

3.59 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#576 Rank among openers
Opening with NOUST left 3 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 3.59 average. It ranks #576 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
62
3 guesses
1,044
4 guesses
1,065
5 guesses
164
6 guesses
16

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
NOSTU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
80%
Green tile
32%
All gray
20%

Feedback distribution

NOUST can come back 111 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

486 answers
171 answers
154 answers
132 answers
131 answers
115 answers
101 answers
73 answers
73 answers
64 answers
59 answers
40 answers
36 answers
36 answers
35 answers
33 answers
30 answers
29 answers
27 answers
26 answers
22 answers
20 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

N1O1U1S1T1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 7 points

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

Strategy after playing NOUST

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing NOUST:

20% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
7% chance
Suggested:
LAIDE
6% chance
Suggested:
TARTE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

20.4% →
RAILE 6.23 bits
7.2% →
LAIDE 5.37 bits
6.5% →
TARTE 5.58 bits
5.5% →
CADRE 5.21 bits
5.5% →
PARLE 5.54 bits
4.8% →
MARLE 4.75 bits
4.2% →
MARLE 4.72 bits
3.1% →
ARIEL 4.99 bits
3.1% →
RAILE 4.50 bits
2.7% →
PHARE 4.79 bits

Research on NOUST

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

Optimal play

Opening with NOUST, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #1,977 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

No guaranteed hard-mode solve In hard mode, no strategy that opens with NOUST can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.59, at or below the proven-optimal 3.66, 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).