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

NOWDS

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of nowd

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

Use NOWDS in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 88.2% 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 NOWDS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts NOWDS 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 72.4% of games, misses completely in 27.6%, and leaves about 281 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,768 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.72 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 NOWDS 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.

4.08 Entropy (bits)
281 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
88.2% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How NOWDS 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.

3.72 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#7,768 Rank among openers
Opening with NOWDS left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.72 average. It ranks #7,768 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
50
3 guesses
812
4 guesses
1,257
5 guesses
223
6 guesses
11

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
NOS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
72%
Green tile
17%
All gray
28%

Feedback distribution

NOWDS can come back 79 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

659 answers
313 answers
227 answers
157 answers
143 answers
126 answers
69 answers
67 answers
61 answers
51 answers
41 answers
36 answers
33 answers
32 answers
32 answers
31 answers
24 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
15 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
8 answers
8 answers
7 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

N1O1W4D2S1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing NOWDS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing NOWDS:

28% chance
Suggested:
CARLE
13% chance
Suggested:
STARE
10% chance
Suggested:
RAILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

27.6% →
CARLE 6.31 bits
13.1% →
STARE 5.72 bits
9.5% →
RAILE 5.51 bits
6.6% →
TALER 5.20 bits
6.0% →
ARIEL 5.54 bits
5.3% →
CARTE 4.81 bits
2.9% →
LIANE 4.49 bits
2.8% →
MAIRE 4.63 bits
2.6% →
PEART 4.21 bits
2.1% →
TRACE 5.18 bits

Research on NOWDS

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

Optimal play

Opening with NOWDS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.74 guesses and ranks #7,646 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 NOWDS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.72, at or below the proven-optimal 3.74, 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).