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

SLYER

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

As an opener, it rules out about 95.9% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Adjective

comparative form of sly: more sly

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 SLYER performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SLYER 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 89.7% of games, misses completely in 10.3%, and leaves about 98 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,483 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.68 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 SLYER 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.

5.26 Entropy (bits)
98 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
95.9% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 94% of evaluated openers
0.69 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SLYER 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.

3.68 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#5,483 Rank among openers
Opening with SLYER solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.68 average. It ranks #5,483 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
65
3 guesses
878
4 guesses
1,187
5 guesses
199
6 guesses
25
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
1 vowels
Common:
ELRS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
90%
Green tile
38%
All gray
10%

Feedback distribution

SLYER can come back 102 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

245 answers
185 answers
180 answers
141 answers
118 answers
94 answers
93 answers
89 answers
84 answers
77 answers
62 answers
54 answers
50 answers
50 answers
49 answers
48 answers
44 answers
42 answers
36 answers
35 answers
33 answers
32 answers
31 answers
30 answers
29 answers
26 answers
26 answers
25 answers
21 answers
19 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1L1Y4E1R1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Strategy after playing SLYER

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SLYER:

10% chance
Suggested:
TONIC
8% chance
Suggested:
DIANE
8% chance
Suggested:
TRAIN

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

10.3%
TONIC 6.00 bits
7.8%
DIANE 5.24 bits
7.6%
TRAIN 5.31 bits
5.9%
ORATE 4.51 bits
5.0%
DAINE 4.06 bits
4.0%
ATONE 3.17 bits
3.9%
STAIN 4.59 bits
3.7%
TONAL 4.88 bits
3.5%
LADLE 4.38 bits
3.2%
CANOE 4.03 bits

Research on SLYER

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

Optimal play

Opening with SLYER, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #2,363 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 SLYER can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.68; proven optimal play reaches 3.66. 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.

How it sounds

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it SLYUR. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

Synonyms tricky SLICK cunning DODGY crafty foxy

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 relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0).