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

NUMPS

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

A fool; a blockhead.

Alternative forms: nump

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

Etymology

Uncertain, probably from Numps, obsolete diminutive of Humphrey. Compare also numb and numpty.

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

Use NUMPS in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 86.5% 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 NUMPS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts NUMPS 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 68.5% of games, misses completely in 31.5%, and leaves about 322 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,422 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.71 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 NUMPS 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.

3.98 Entropy (bits)
322 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
86.5% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How NUMPS 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.

3.71 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#7,422 Rank among openers
Opening with NUMPS 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 3.71 average. It ranks #7,422 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
38
3 guesses
864
4 guesses
1,206
5 guesses
232
6 guesses
13

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
NSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
68%
Green tile
15%
All gray
32%

Feedback distribution

NUMPS can come back 72 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

752 answers
267 answers
263 answers
109 answers
108 answers
90 answers
84 answers
73 answers
72 answers
50 answers
45 answers
35 answers
33 answers
28 answers
28 answers
27 answers
26 answers
25 answers
22 answers
21 answers
17 answers
16 answers
13 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
9 answers
9 answers
9 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

N1U1M3P3S1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Strategy after playing NUMPS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing NUMPS:

32% chance
Suggested:
TALER
11% chance
Suggested:
ARIEL
11% chance
Suggested:
STALE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

31.5% →
TALER 6.16 bits
11.2% →
ARIEL 5.55 bits
11.0% →
STALE 5.74 bits
4.6% →
MAIRE 5.55 bits
4.5% →
ARIEL 5.37 bits
3.8% →
CLOTE 5.38 bits
3.5% →
LATER 4.60 bits
3.1% →
STIRE 4.94 bits
3.0% →
TIARE 4.87 bits
2.1% →
TRIDE 4.28 bits

Research on NUMPS

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

Optimal play

Opening with NUMPS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.75 guesses and ranks #8,107 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.85 guesses at best and is rank #2,767 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.71, at or below the proven-optimal 3.75, 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).