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

SAMFU

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

As an opener, it rules out about 89.8% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

A type of suit worn in China, consisting of a shirt with a high neckline bound down the middle with tassels, and trousers

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 SAMFU performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SAMFU 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 75.7% of games, misses completely in 24.3%, and leaves about 243 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,701 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.76 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 SAMFU 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.

4.20 Entropy (bits)
243 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
89.8% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 32% of evaluated openers
1.75 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SAMFU 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.

3.76 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#9,701 Rank among openers
Opening with SAMFU left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.76 average. It ranks #9,701 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
41
3 guesses
782
4 guesses
1,253
5 guesses
266
6 guesses
11
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:
ASU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
31%
All gray
24%

Feedback distribution

SAMFU can come back 70 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

578 answers
321 answers
203 answers
173 answers
160 answers
85 answers
84 answers
78 answers
72 answers
49 answers
49 answers
47 answers
43 answers
33 answers
32 answers
30 answers
28 answers
26 answers
22 answers
20 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
12 answers
11 answers
9 answers
8 answers
8 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1A1M3F4U1
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing SAMFU

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SAMFU:

24% chance
Suggested:
TRONE
14% chance
Suggested:
LEARN
9% chance
Suggested:
CRONE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

24.3%
TRONE 5.99 bits
13.5%
LEARN 5.41 bits
8.6%
CRONE 5.25 bits
7.3%
RONTE 4.88 bits
6.7%
TRINE 5.16 bits
3.6%
THALE 4.43 bits
3.5%
TROPE 5.28 bits
3.3%
FRITE 5.17 bits
3.0%
MOIRE 5.18 bits
2.1%
TRACE 4.50 bits

Research on SAMFU

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

Optimal play

Opening with SAMFU, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.77 guesses and ranks #9,127 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.89 guesses at best and is rank #3,889 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.76, 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 SAMFOO. 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.