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

SCROG

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /skɹɒɡ//skɹɑɡ/

Noun

A stunted or shrivelled bush.

Noun

Brushwood.

Alternative forms: scroag

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

Etymology

Compare scrag, or Scottish Gaelic sgrogag (“anything shriveled”), from sgrag (“to compress, shrivel”).

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

Use SCROG in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 92.8% 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 SCROG performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SCROG 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 81.4% of games, misses completely in 18.6%, and leaves about 171 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,572 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.

First-turn measures

All four describe SCROG 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.

4.65 Entropy (bits)
171 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.8% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SCROG 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
99.92% Solved within six
0.66 Spread of game lengths
#3,572 Rank among openers
Opening with SCROG left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.66 means those games clustered within about 0.66 of a guess of the 3.65 average. It ranks #3,572 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
42
3 guesses
941
4 guesses
1,191
5 guesses
163
6 guesses
15

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
ORS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
81%
Green tile
28%
All gray
19%

Feedback distribution

SCROG can come back 82 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

443 answers
266 answers
175 answers
168 answers
161 answers
106 answers
104 answers
88 answers
71 answers
54 answers
53 answers
49 answers
42 answers
41 answers
39 answers
37 answers
35 answers
33 answers
33 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
18 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
14 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1C3R1O1G2
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing SCROG

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SCROG:

19% chance
Suggested:
ANILE
11% chance
Suggested:
ARIEL
7% chance
Suggested:
PLATE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

18.6% →
ANILE 6.15 bits
11.2% →
ARIEL 5.17 bits
7.3% →
PLATE 5.45 bits
7.0% →
NAICE 5.34 bits
6.8% →
TONAL 4.98 bits
4.4% →
HASTE 5.19 bits
4.4% →
LIANE 5.45 bits
3.7% →
TRADE 4.42 bits
3.0% →
CRATE 4.81 bits
2.3% →
MATEY 4.58 bits

Research on SCROG

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

Optimal play

Opening with SCROG, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #4,654 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.81 guesses at best and is rank #1,725 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.

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