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

SELKY

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

No dictionary definition for SELKY is recorded in our sourced data.

Meaning and pronunciation

We do not have a sourced definition for this word yet.

Check SELKY on Wiktionary or report a missing entry.

Use SELKY in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 92.3% 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 SELKY performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SELKY 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 82.4% of games, misses completely in 17.6%, and leaves about 183 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,352 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.75 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 SELKY 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.

4.59 Entropy (bits)
183 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.3% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SELKY 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.

3.75 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#9,352 Rank among openers
Opening with SELKY left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.75 average. It ranks #9,352 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
48
3 guesses
793
4 guesses
1,240
5 guesses
249
6 guesses
23

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
ELS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
40%
All gray
18%

Feedback distribution

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

419 answers
367 answers
165 answers
146 answers
138 answers
109 answers
105 answers
90 answers
79 answers
73 answers
40 answers
36 answers
34 answers
32 answers
30 answers
29 answers
29 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
24 answers
24 answers
23 answers
23 answers
21 answers
18 answers
18 answers
16 answers
15 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1E1L1K5Y4
Total: 12 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing SELKY

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SELKY:

18% chance
Suggested:
TRAIN
15% chance
Suggested:
IRATE
7% chance
Suggested:
TRIAL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.6% →
TRAIN 6.22 bits
15.4% →
IRATE 5.28 bits
6.9% →
TRIAL 5.01 bits
6.1% →
DAIRY 4.22 bits
5.8% →
AINEE 4.59 bits
4.6% →
RANCE 4.63 bits
4.4% →
ROAST 4.61 bits
3.8% →
PARTE 4.71 bits
3.3% →
ROAST 4.73 bits
3.1% →
ROUTE 4.42 bits

Research on SELKY

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

Optimal play

Opening with SELKY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.73 guesses and ranks #7,213 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.89 guesses at best and is rank #3,857 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.75; proven optimal play reaches 3.73. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.

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).