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

PHOTY

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

No dictionary definition for PHOTY is recorded in our sourced data.

Meaning and pronunciation

We do not have a sourced definition for this word yet.

Check PHOTY on Wiktionary or report a missing entry.

Use PHOTY in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 89.6% 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

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 PHOTY performs as a guess

Wordle accepts PHOTY 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 73.4% of games, misses completely in 26.6%, and leaves about 246 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,516 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.68 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 PHOTY 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.

4.42 Entropy (bits)
246 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
89.6% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How PHOTY 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.

3.68 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#5,516 Rank among openers
Opening with PHOTY solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.68 average. It ranks #5,516 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
57
3 guesses
890
4 guesses
1,176
5 guesses
216
6 guesses
15

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
OT

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
73%
Green tile
37%
All gray
27%

Feedback distribution

PHOTY can come back 97 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

632 answers
259 answers
209 answers
160 answers
109 answers
81 answers
70 answers
67 answers
66 answers
62 answers
45 answers
37 answers
35 answers
34 answers
33 answers
33 answers
27 answers
25 answers
21 answers
21 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
17 answers
15 answers
11 answers
10 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

P3H4O1T1Y4
Total: 13 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing PHOTY

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing PHOTY:

27% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
11% chance
Suggested:
ARIEL
9% chance
Suggested:
CANER

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

26.6%
RAILE 6.24 bits
10.9%
ARIEL 5.68 bits
8.8%
CANER 5.35 bits
6.7%
LAIDE 4.78 bits
4.6%
CRANE 4.93 bits
3.4%
ARIEL 5.41 bits
2.9%
ROUET 4.43 bits
2.8%
SLANE 4.91 bits
2.8%
CARLE 4.92 bits
2.6%
RAINE 4.97 bits

Research on PHOTY

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

Optimal play

Opening with PHOTY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.72 guesses and ranks #6,136 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.86 guesses at best and is rank #3,094 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.68, at or below the proven-optimal 3.72, 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).