Possible answer Not used yet B tier for first-turn info

SAFER

SAFER is on the solver's possible-answer list but has not appeared as a Wordle answer yet.

As an opener, it rules out about 95.7% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Adjective

comparative form of safe: more safe

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

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

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 SAFER performs as a guess

SAFER 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 87.4% of games, misses completely in 12.6%, and leaves about 102 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,810 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.65 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 SAFER 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.

5.30 Entropy (bits)
102 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
95.7% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 95% of evaluated openers
0.65 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SAFER 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.

3.65 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#3,810 Rank among openers
Opening with SAFER left 2 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 3.65 average. It ranks #3,810 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
72
3 guesses
892
4 guesses
1,185
5 guesses
188
6 guesses
14
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:
AERS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
87%
Green tile
41%
All gray
13%

Example solver route

R O A T E
G L E A M
P A N S Y
S A F E R

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SAFER in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

SAFER can come back 108 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

298 answers
185 answers
133 answers
126 answers
108 answers
103 answers
101 answers
101 answers
81 answers
76 answers
75 answers
61 answers
53 answers
49 answers
47 answers
39 answers
37 answers
33 answers
29 answers
28 answers
28 answers
27 answers
26 answers
26 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
19 answers
19 answers
19 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1A1F4E1R1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Strategy after playing SAFER

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SAFER:

13% chance
Suggested:
COUNT
8% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
6% chance
Suggested:
DROIT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.6%
COUNT 5.66 bits
7.8%
TOILE 5.29 bits
5.6%
DROIT 4.79 bits
5.3%
PLAIT 5.03 bits
4.5%
DEALT 4.82 bits
4.3%
CANDY 3.99 bits
4.3%
PORTE 4.23 bits
4.3%
STINK 4.40 bits
3.4%
TRAIN 4.12 bits
3.2%
TOILE 3.42 bits

Research on SAFER

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

Optimal play

Opening with SAFER, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.65 guesses and ranks #1,756 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 SAFER can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, at or below the proven-optimal 3.65, 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 SAYFUR.

Rhymes with WAFER

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SAFER is a kind of box or closet.

Synonyms good safety secure rubber condom dependable

Opposites dangerous out adventurous

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SAFER sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 12 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.

In a sentence

I feel safer with you.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
We will be safer here.
© tatoeba.org contributor sejb (CC BY 2.0 FR)

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).