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

SLISH

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

As an opener, it rules out about 88.7% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /slɪʃ/

Verb

To cut, slit or slash.

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 SLISH performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SLISH 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 71.7% of games, misses completely in 28.3%, and leaves about 268 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,368 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.73 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 SLISH 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.

4.21 Entropy (bits)
268 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
88.7% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 33% of evaluated openers
1.74 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SLISH 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.

3.73 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#8,368 Rank among openers
Opening with SLISH 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 3.73 average. It ranks #8,368 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
32
3 guesses
852
4 guesses
1,211
5 guesses
241
6 guesses
17
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

4/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
ILS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
72%
Green tile
40%
All gray
28%

Feedback distribution

SLISH can come back 73 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

673 answers
230 answers
201 answers
170 answers
120 answers
112 answers
96 answers
77 answers
71 answers
57 answers
45 answers
37 answers
36 answers
31 answers
27 answers
23 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1L1I1S1H4
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Strategy after playing SLISH

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SLISH:

28% chance
Suggested:
ROATE
10% chance
Suggested:
OATER
8% chance
Suggested:
RONTE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

28.3%
ROATE 6.05 bits
9.7%
OATER 5.17 bits
8.5%
RONTE 5.41 bits
7.2%
PEART 5.48 bits
5.1%
BRACE 5.00 bits
4.7%
TRONE 5.02 bits
4.0%
ROATE 5.55 bits
3.2%
DIANE 4.27 bits
3.0%
RUOTE 4.67 bits
2.4%
RUOTE 4.78 bits

Research on SLISH

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

Optimal play

Opening with SLISH, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.79 guesses and ranks #10,455 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.94 guesses at best and is rank #5,041 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.73, at or below the proven-optimal 3.79, 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 SLIHSH. 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.