Possible answer Not used yet F tier for first-turn info

SLYLY

SLYLY is on the solver's possible-answer list but has not appeared as a Wordle answer yet.

As an opener, it rules out about 79.6% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈslaɪli/

Adverb

In a sly manner, cunningly.

Alternative forms: slily

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

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

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 SLYLY performs as a guess

SLYLY is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,374 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 59.1% of games, misses completely in 40.9%, and leaves about 485 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #14,381 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.94 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 SLYLY 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.

3.24 Entropy (bits)
485 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
79.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 3% of evaluated openers
2.71 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SLYLY 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.

3.94 Avg guesses
99.83% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#14,381 Rank among openers
Opening with SLYLY left 4 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 3.94 average. It ranks #14,381 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
23
3 guesses
578
4 guesses
1,300
5 guesses
411
6 guesses
37
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

3/5 unique
0 vowels
Common:
LS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
59%
Green tile
41%
All gray
41%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I M Y
S L Y L Y

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SLYLY in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

SLYLY can come back 46 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

970 answers
250 answers
211 answers
202 answers
175 answers
147 answers
54 answers
38 answers
31 answers
26 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
20 answers
20 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
14 answers
13 answers
8 answers
7 answers
4 answers
4 answers
3 answers
3 answers
3 answers
3 answers
3 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1L1Y4L1Y4
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing SLYLY

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SLYLY:

41% chance
Suggested:
IRATE
11% chance
Suggested:
TIARE
9% chance
Suggested:
DAINE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

40.9%
IRATE 6.12 bits
10.5%
TIARE 5.27 bits
8.9%
DAINE 4.71 bits
8.5%
OATER 5.33 bits
7.4%
ROATE 5.49 bits
6.2%
BRACE 4.95 bits
2.3%
WAITE 4.64 bits
1.6%
TOUSE 3.61 bits
1.3%
COAST 3.73 bits
1.1%
ATONE 3.59 bits

Research on SLYLY

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

Optimal play

Opening with SLYLY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.96 guesses and ranks #14,480 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 SLYLY can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.94, at or below the proven-optimal 3.96, 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

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it SLYLEE.

Rhymes with RILEY KYLIE SHYLY WRYLY KILEY

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SLYLY 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.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.0 of 5).

In a sentence

Daniel smiled slyly to himself.
© tatoeba.org contributor Amastan (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Everyone was staring at Daniel strangely and smiling slyly.
© tatoeba.org contributor Amastan (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).