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

SARDS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 91.8% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /sɑɹdz//sɑːdz/

Noun

plural of sard

Verb

third-person singular simple present indicative of sard

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 SARDS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SARDS 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 79.6% of games, misses completely in 20.4%, and leaves about 194 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,580 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.73 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 SARDS 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.

4.43 Entropy (bits)
194 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
91.8% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 47% of evaluated openers
1.52 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SARDS 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.

3.73 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#8,580 Rank among openers
Opening with SARDS left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.73 average. It ranks #8,580 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
33
3 guesses
835
4 guesses
1,226
5 guesses
244
6 guesses
13
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

4/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
ARS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
80%
Green tile
36%
All gray
20%

Feedback distribution

SARDS can come back 69 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

485 answers
265 answers
217 answers
159 answers
144 answers
129 answers
115 answers
74 answers
70 answers
65 answers
61 answers
50 answers
38 answers
37 answers
37 answers
34 answers
33 answers
27 answers
27 answers
26 answers
24 answers
20 answers
16 answers
14 answers
14 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1A1R1D2S1
Total: 6 points

Words With Friends

Total: 6 points

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

Strategy after playing SARDS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SARDS:

20% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
11% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
9% chance
Suggested:
CLONE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

20.4%
TOILE 6.09 bits
11.2%
TOILE 5.18 bits
9.1%
CLONE 5.54 bits
6.7%
TOILE 5.05 bits
6.1%
CONTE 4.82 bits
5.4%
TRACE 4.85 bits
4.8%
TUILE 5.21 bits
3.1%
HOISE 4.93 bits
2.9%
CONTE 4.64 bits
2.7%
LEANT 4.46 bits

Research on SARDS

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

Optimal play

Opening with SARDS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.77 guesses and ranks #9,246 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 SARDS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.73, 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

One syllable Say it SAHRDZ. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SARDS is a kind of quartz.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model; Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0).