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

SCULK

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

As an opener, it rules out about 88.1% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Verb

Alternative spelling of skulk.

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 SCULK performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SCULK 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 70.8% of games, misses completely in 29.2%, and leaves about 282 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,287 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.67 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 SCULK 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.

4.24 Entropy (bits)
282 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
88.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 35% of evaluated openers
1.71 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SCULK 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.

3.67 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#5,287 Rank among openers
Opening with SCULK left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.67 average. It ranks #5,287 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
50
3 guesses
901
4 guesses
1,180
5 guesses
209
6 guesses
13
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.46 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
LSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
71%
Green tile
29%
All gray
29%

Feedback distribution

SCULK can come back 90 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

694 answers
260 answers
192 answers
163 answers
132 answers
127 answers
80 answers
53 answers
45 answers
39 answers
37 answers
35 answers
29 answers
28 answers
27 answers
27 answers
24 answers
22 answers
20 answers
20 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
16 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
10 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1C3U1L1K5
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 14 points

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

Strategy after playing SCULK

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SCULK:

29% chance
Suggested:
ROATE
11% chance
Suggested:
ROATE
8% chance
Suggested:
TIARE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

29.2%
ROATE 6.14 bits
11.0%
ROATE 5.41 bits
8.1%
TIARE 5.65 bits
6.9%
PARTE 5.48 bits
5.6%
ROATE 5.54 bits
5.3%
RONTE 5.04 bits
3.4%
DAINE 4.75 bits
2.2%
TARGE 4.66 bits
1.9%
CLEAN 4.60 bits
1.6%
OLATE 4.46 bits

Research on SCULK

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

Optimal play

Opening with SCULK, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.73 guesses and ranks #7,193 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.84 guesses at best and is rank #2,639 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.67, at or below the proven-optimal 3.73, 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.

How it sounds

One syllable Say it SKUHLK. 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.