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

SCATH

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

As an opener, it rules out about 92.3% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /skæθ//skɑːθ/

Noun

Alternative form of scathe (“harm; damage”).

Verb

Archaic form of scathe.

Alternative forms: scathe, scaith, schath, schathe

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 SCATH performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SCATH 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 78.1% of games, misses completely in 21.9%, and leaves about 183 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,388 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.61 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.

Useful pattern pages

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

First-turn measures

All four describe SCATH 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.

4.89 Entropy (bits)
183 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 77% of evaluated openers
1.06 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SCATH 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.

3.61 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#1,388 Rank among openers
Opening with SCATH 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 3.61 average. It ranks #1,388 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
60
3 guesses
998
4 guesses
1,108
5 guesses
179
6 guesses
8
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.45 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
AST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
78%
Green tile
34%
All gray
22%

Feedback distribution

SCATH can come back 111 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

517 answers
271 answers
139 answers
119 answers
108 answers
95 answers
89 answers
73 answers
60 answers
52 answers
41 answers
38 answers
35 answers
35 answers
34 answers
31 answers
29 answers
27 answers
26 answers
25 answers
23 answers
23 answers
23 answers
21 answers
19 answers
18 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SCATH:

22% chance
Suggested:
DROLE
11% chance
Suggested:
MARLE
6% chance
Suggested:
ROUET

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

21.9%
DROLE 6.07 bits
11.5%
MARLE 5.34 bits
5.9%
ROUET 5.45 bits
5.0%
CRINE 5.30 bits
4.6%
PLIER 5.21 bits
4.0%
DRONE 4.75 bits
3.8%
TALER 4.59 bits
3.1%
RIONE 5.19 bits
2.5%
CRONE 4.58 bits
2.2%
ROUET 4.11 bits

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1C3A1T1H4
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

The science of SCATH

What game-tree analysis and word research measure about SCATH — each figure with what it means.

Optimal play

Opening with SCATH, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.67 guesses — rank #2,729 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 SCATH can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.61 — at or below the proven-optimal 3.67 only 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) — not the site's working answer pool.

How it sounds

One syllable — say it SKATH. 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.