SCALP
SCALP is on the solver's possible-answer list and has no appearance in our globally completed Wordle history.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /skælp/
- Noun
-
The part of the head where the hair grows from, or used to grow from.
- Noun
-
A victory, especially at the expense of someone else.
- Verb
-
To remove the scalp (part of the head from where the hair grows), by brutal act or accident.
- Verb
-
To resell, especially tickets, usually for an inflated price, often illegally.
“Tickets were being scalped for $300.”
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From Middle English scalp, skalp, scalpe (“crown of the head; skull”). Originally a northern word, and therefore probably from a North Germanic source, although the sense-development is unclear; compare Sylt North Frisian Skolp (“dandruff”), Old Norse skálpr (“sheath”), Old Swedish skalp, Dutch schelp (“shell”).
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
One syllable Say it SKALP.
In a sentence
The spa offers a scalp treatment.
My scalp is very itchy.
Use SCALP in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 92.9% of possible answers.
Wordle status
A word can be a playable guess without being a possible answer.
Playable guess
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
No completed appearanceNo 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.
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See what the public sample says →How SCALP performs as a guess
SCALP is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,384 when every answer is treated as equally likely.
Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 79.4% of games, misses completely in 20.6%, and leaves about 170 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #607 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.59 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe SCALP 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How SCALP 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches SCALP in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
SCALP can come back 105 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for SCALP; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing SCALP
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to SCALP.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing SCALP:
Research on SCALP
Game-tree analysis and word research for SCALP, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with SCALP, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.65 guesses and ranks #1,681 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.74 guesses at best and is rank #180 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.59, 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.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- SCALP sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 3 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 8, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 78 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0).