PARRY
Yes, PARRY was the Wordle answer on September 8, 2021 (Wordle #81).
As an opener, it rules out about 89.7% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈpæɹ.i/
- Verb
-
To avoid, deflect, or ward off (an attack, a blow, an argument, etc.).
- Noun
-
A defensive or deflective action; an act of parrying.
- Noun
-
A simple defensive action designed to deflect an attack, performed with the forte of the blade.
Alternative forms: parree
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
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Used oncePast Wordle answer: September 8, 2021 (#81).
See the full page for that puzzle: September 8, 2021 (#81).
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →How PARRY performs as a guess
PARRY is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,374 when every answer is treated as equally likely.
Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 75.1% of games, misses completely in 24.9%, and leaves about 245 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,124 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.74 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe PARRY 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How PARRY 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches PARRY in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
PARRY can come back 91 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for PARRY; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing PARRY
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to PARRY.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing PARRY:
Research on PARRY
Game-tree analysis and word research for PARRY, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with PARRY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.77 guesses and ranks #9,144 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.93 guesses at best and is rank #4,909 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.74, 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 PEHREE.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, PARRY is a kind of block or punch.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- PARRY sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 3 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
In a sentence
I didn't have time to parry Tom's attack.
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).