5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess C tier for first-turn info

SCARF

Yes, SCARF was the Wordle answer on May 14, 2023 (Wordle #694).

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /skɑːf//skɑɹf//skɐːf/

Noun

A long, often knitted, garment worn around the neck.

Noun

A headscarf.

Verb

To throw on loosely; to put on like a scarf.

Verb

To dress with a scarf, or as with a scarf; to cover with a loose wrapping.

“She scarfed her head.”

Alternative forms: scarve, scart, skart

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

Etymology

Generally thought to be a variant, attested since the 1950s, of scoff (“eat (quickly)”) (of which scorf is another attested variant), itself a variant of scaff. Sometimes alternatively suggested to be a dialectal survival of Old English scearfian, sceorfan (“gnaw, bite”) (compare scurf).

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

One syllable Say it SKAHRF.

In a sentence

You can keep the scarf.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Don't you want your scarf?
© tatoeba.org contributor sundown (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use SCARF in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 93.0% of possible answers.

Open Solver with SCARF Open Word Finder

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

Used once

Past Wordle answer: May 14, 2023 (#694).

See the full page for that puzzle: May 14, 2023 (#694).

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

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SCARF in Connections

9 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . Showing the 5 most recent. A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.

How SCARF performs as a guess

SCARF 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 82.3% of games, misses completely in 17.7%, and leaves about 166 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,730 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.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

S___F S in the 1st position and F in the 5th position S__R_ S in the 1st position and R in the 4th position _C__F C in the 2nd position and F in the 5th position SC_RF S in the 1st position, C in the 2nd position, R in the 4th position, and F in the 5th position

Explore lists that match the beginning, ending or letters in SCARF.

First-turn measures

All four describe SCARF 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.

4.72 Entropy (bits)
166 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
93.0% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SCARF 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
99.96% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#3,730 Rank among openers
Opening with SCARF left 1 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 3.65 average. It ranks #3,730 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
45
3 guesses
937
4 guesses
1,182
5 guesses
172
6 guesses
16

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
ARS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
30%
All gray
18%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S W I N G
P I C K Y
S C A R F

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SCARF in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

SCARF can come back 87 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

422 answers
255 answers
240 answers
148 answers
136 answers
118 answers
87 answers
66 answers
62 answers
62 answers
54 answers
48 answers
45 answers
44 answers
40 answers
38 answers
35 answers
31 answers
27 answers
25 answers
23 answers
23 answers
21 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
15 answers
15 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1C3A1R1F4
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Try next

TOILE TUILE TALER TOISE BLITE CRIPE

Strategy after playing SCARF

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SCARF:

18% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
11% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
10% chance
Suggested:
TOILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.7% →
TOILE 6.13 bits
10.7% →
TOILE 5.23 bits
10.1% →
TOILE 5.26 bits
6.2% →
TOILE 5.13 bits
5.7% →
TUILE 5.19 bits
4.9% →
TALER 4.64 bits
3.6% →
TOISE 5.03 bits
2.8% →
BLITE 4.55 bits
2.6% →
CRIPE 4.58 bits
2.6% →
CONTE 4.37 bits

Research on SCARF

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

Optimal play

Opening with SCARF, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #5,165 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.82 guesses at best and is rank #1,973 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, at or below the proven-optimal 3.70, 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
SCARF sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 5 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Learner level
Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A2); among the first words English learners study.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 5, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 95 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); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0).