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

OSHAC

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

As an opener, it rules out about 92.0% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

The perennial herb Dorema ammoniacum, whose stem yields ammoniacum.

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

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

Not used yet

No past answer date found.

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

How OSHAC performs as a guess

Wordle accepts OSHAC 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 81.9% of games, misses completely in 18.1%, and leaves about 191 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,016 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 OSHAC 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.

4.41 Entropy (bits)
191 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 46% of evaluated openers
1.54 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How OSHAC 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
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#8,016 Rank among openers
Opening with OSHAC left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.72 average. It ranks #8,016 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
50
3 guesses
829
4 guesses
1,224
5 guesses
228
6 guesses
22
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.46 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AOS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
11%
All gray
18%

Feedback distribution

OSHAC can come back 75 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

430 answers
327 answers
248 answers
184 answers
112 answers
93 answers
86 answers
79 answers
72 answers
66 answers
63 answers
52 answers
45 answers
45 answers
44 answers
37 answers
34 answers
28 answers
24 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
14 answers
12 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

O1S1H4A1C3
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing OSHAC

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing OSHAC:

18% chance
Suggested:
DINER
14% chance
Suggested:
ALATE
10% chance
Suggested:
TONER

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

18.1%
DINER 6.02 bits
13.8%
ALATE 5.29 bits
10.4%
TONER 5.09 bits
7.8%
SPITE 5.44 bits
4.7%
SALET 4.87 bits
3.9%
STORE 4.60 bits
3.6%
CRIPE 5.28 bits
3.3%
TALON 4.37 bits
3.0%
RENAL 4.55 bits
2.8%
FRITE 4.97 bits

Research on OSHAC

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

Optimal play

Opening with OSHAC, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.77 guesses and ranks #9,216 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.88 guesses at best and is rank #3,695 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.72, at or below the proven-optimal 3.77, 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.

How it sounds

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it OHSHAK. Estimated pronunciation

This pronunciation is machine-estimated, not taken from a pronunciation dictionary.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model.