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

SHOUD

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

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

As an opener, it rules out about 90.4% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

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

Check SHOUD on Wiktionary or report a missing entry.

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 SHOUD performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SHOUD 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 74.2% of games, misses completely in 25.8%, and leaves about 228 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #4,332 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.66 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 SHOUD 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.

4.51 Entropy (bits)
228 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 52% of evaluated openers
1.44 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SHOUD 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.

3.66 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#4,332 Rank among openers
Opening with SHOUD 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 3.66 average. It ranks #4,332 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
51
3 guesses
920
4 guesses
1,177
5 guesses
191
6 guesses
14
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
2 vowels
Common:
OSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
74%
Green tile
32%
All gray
26%

Feedback distribution

SHOUD can come back 92 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

612 answers
220 answers
169 answers
159 answers
119 answers
102 answers
97 answers
95 answers
51 answers
51 answers
48 answers
44 answers
39 answers
35 answers
32 answers
32 answers
31 answers
29 answers
27 answers
27 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
15 answers
14 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1H4O1U1D2
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing SHOUD

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SHOUD:

26% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
9% chance
Suggested:
TALER
7% chance
Suggested:
PLATE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

25.8%
RAILE 6.10 bits
9.3%
TALER 5.41 bits
7.1%
PLATE 5.46 bits
6.7%
PLANE 4.96 bits
5.0%
RAILE 5.48 bits
4.3%
TALER 5.35 bits
4.1%
CARTE 5.28 bits
4.0%
BRANE 4.63 bits
2.1%
ARIEL 4.68 bits
2.1%
TRICE 5.04 bits

Research on SHOUD

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

Optimal play

Opening with SHOUD, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,368 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 SHOUD can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.66, at or below the proven-optimal 3.71, 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 SHOHD. Estimated pronunciation

This pronunciation is machine-estimated, not taken from a pronunciation dictionary.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SHOUD sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model; Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).