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

SCOUG

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Verb

Alternative form of scug.

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

Use SCOUG in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 90.2% 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 SCOUG performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SCOUG 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 74.8% of games, misses completely in 25.2%, and leaves about 234 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,643 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.70 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 SCOUG 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.

4.35 Entropy (bits)
234 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.2% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SCOUG 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.

3.70 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#6,643 Rank among openers
Opening with SCOUG solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.70 average. It ranks #6,643 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
47
3 guesses
863
4 guesses
1,218
5 guesses
210
6 guesses
16

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
OSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
75%
Green tile
27%
All gray
25%

Feedback distribution

SCOUG can come back 85 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

600 answers
214 answers
199 answers
194 answers
141 answers
126 answers
109 answers
95 answers
55 answers
50 answers
49 answers
36 answers
35 answers
35 answers
33 answers
32 answers
31 answers
25 answers
22 answers
19 answers
17 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
11 answers
10 answers
9 answers
8 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1C3O1U1G2
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing SCOUG

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SCOUG:

25% chance
Suggested:
RATEL
9% chance
Suggested:
TALER
8% chance
Suggested:
CHARE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

25.2% →
RATEL 6.15 bits
9.0% →
TALER 5.37 bits
8.3% →
CHARE 5.52 bits
8.1% →
PLATE 5.38 bits
5.9% →
PARLE 4.97 bits
5.3% →
RAINE 5.48 bits
4.6% →
TARSE 5.50 bits
4.0% →
TRADE 4.67 bits
2.3% →
CANER 4.67 bits
2.1% →
CLINE 4.32 bits

Research on SCOUG

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

Optimal play

Opening with SCOUG, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.75 guesses and ranks #7,814 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.86 guesses at best and is rank #3,058 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.70, at or below the proven-optimal 3.75, 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT).