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

SKAWS

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of skaw

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

Use SKAWS in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 81.5% 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 SKAWS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SKAWS 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 63.5% of games, misses completely in 36.5%, and leaves about 441 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,895 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.89 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 SKAWS 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.

3.42 Entropy (bits)
441 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
81.5% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SKAWS 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.

3.89 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#13,895 Rank among openers
Opening with SKAWS left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.89 average. It ranks #13,895 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
26
3 guesses
652
4 guesses
1,249
5 guesses
399
6 guesses
26

Composition

4/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
AS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
64%
Green tile
27%
All gray
36%

Feedback distribution

SKAWS can come back 52 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

869 answers
457 answers
173 answers
145 answers
109 answers
87 answers
73 answers
51 answers
47 answers
45 answers
30 answers
29 answers
28 answers
25 answers
21 answers
20 answers
17 answers
15 answers
13 answers
11 answers
10 answers
9 answers
8 answers
8 answers
8 answers
7 answers
6 answers
6 answers
6 answers
6 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1K5A1W4S1
Total: 12 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing SKAWS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SKAWS:

36% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
19% chance
Suggested:
RATEL
7% chance
Suggested:
RONTE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

36.5% →
TOILE 5.98 bits
19.2% →
RATEL 5.48 bits
7.3% →
RONTE 5.10 bits
6.1% →
TRICE 5.15 bits
4.6% →
RUOTE 5.44 bits
3.6% →
RONTE 5.14 bits
3.1% →
CLINE 5.08 bits
2.1% →
PLIER 3.83 bits
2.0% →
TRIPE 4.49 bits
1.9% →
TALER 4.31 bits

Research on SKAWS

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

Optimal play

Opening with SKAWS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.91 guesses and ranks #13,974 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 4.06 guesses at best and is rank #6,828 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.89, at or below the proven-optimal 3.91, 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).