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

SARIN

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈsɑːɹɪn//ˈsɑːɹən/

Noun

The nerve gas O-isopropyl methylphosphonofluoridate, used as a chemical weapon.

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Etymology

Named after the initials of its creators, Gerhard Schrader (1903–1990), Ambros, Rüdiger and Van der Linde.

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

Two syllables Say it SAHRIHN.

Rhymes with BEGIN ALLIN

Related meanings

Synonyms gb

Use SARIN in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 96.2% 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

No completed appearance

No appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

How SARIN performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SARIN 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 89.4% of games, misses completely in 10.6%, and leaves about 91 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #458 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.58 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 SARIN 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.

5.49 Entropy (bits)
91 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
96.2% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SARIN 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.

3.58 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#458 Rank among openers
Opening with SARIN left 1 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 3.58 average. It ranks #458 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
72
3 guesses
1,049
4 guesses
1,040
5 guesses
175
6 guesses
17

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AINRS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
89%
Green tile
40%
All gray
11%

Feedback distribution

SARIN can come back 126 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

253 answers
180 answers
155 answers
129 answers
120 answers
95 answers
86 answers
81 answers
77 answers
68 answers
67 answers
58 answers
54 answers
45 answers
41 answers
41 answers
39 answers
39 answers
33 answers
29 answers
29 answers
27 answers
26 answers
23 answers
23 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
20 answers
19 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1A1R1I1N1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 6 points

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

Strategy after playing SARIN

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SARIN:

11% chance
Suggested:
CLOTE
8% chance
Suggested:
CLOTE
7% chance
Suggested:
ALATE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

10.6% →
CLOTE 5.77 bits
7.6% →
CLOTE 5.00 bits
6.5% →
ALATE 5.38 bits
5.4% →
LITHE 5.13 bits
5.0% →
TRACE 4.84 bits
4.0% →
CLOTE 4.49 bits
3.6% →
CONEY 4.77 bits
3.4% →
CLOTE 4.77 bits
3.2% →
PRIED 4.27 bits
2.9% →
TONEY 4.47 bits

Research on SARIN

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

Optimal play

Opening with SARIN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.61 guesses and ranks #424 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.75 guesses at best and is rank #276 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.58, at or below the proven-optimal 3.61, 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SARIN sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.

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).