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

SKAIL

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

As an opener, it rules out about 93.4% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

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 SKAIL performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SKAIL 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 82.1% of games, misses completely in 17.9%, and leaves about 156 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,581 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 SKAIL 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.

4.87 Entropy (bits)
156 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
93.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 76% of evaluated openers
1.07 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SKAIL 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
99.96% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#3,581 Rank among openers
Opening with SKAIL 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 3.65 average. It ranks #3,581 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
43
3 guesses
968
4 guesses
1,132
5 guesses
198
6 guesses
12
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:
AILS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
36%
All gray
18%

Feedback distribution

SKAIL can come back 94 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

426 answers
245 answers
215 answers
133 answers
108 answers
93 answers
92 answers
90 answers
63 answers
57 answers
51 answers
40 answers
39 answers
36 answers
35 answers
35 answers
34 answers
34 answers
33 answers
32 answers
31 answers
27 answers
24 answers
22 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1K5A1I1L1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing SKAIL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SKAIL:

18% chance
Suggested:
TONER
10% chance
Suggested:
TONER
9% chance
Suggested:
TRONE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.9%
TONER 6.04 bits
10.3%
TONER 5.48 bits
9.1%
TRONE 5.40 bits
5.6%
BOULE 5.02 bits
4.5%
TONER 5.19 bits
3.9%
TRUCE 5.02 bits
3.9%
RUOTE 5.33 bits
3.8%
TALER 4.78 bits
2.7%
FIELD 4.28 bits
2.4%
TONER 4.76 bits

Research on SKAIL

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

Optimal play

Opening with SKAIL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #4,570 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.82 guesses at best and is rank #2,012 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.

How it sounds

One syllable Say it SKAYL. 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.