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

SMARM

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

As an opener, it rules out about 90.3% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /smɑːm//smɑɹm/

Noun

Smarmy language or behavior.

Noun

A style of fan fiction in which characters are warm and caring toward each other but without sexual overtones.

Verb

To fawn, to be unctuous.

Verb

To address in a fawning and unctuous manner.

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 SMARM performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SMARM 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 77.7% of games, misses completely in 22.3%, and leaves about 230 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,731 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.78 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.

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

First-turn measures

All four describe SMARM 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.

4.23 Entropy (bits)
230 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 34% of evaluated openers
1.72 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SMARM 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.

3.78 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#10,731 Rank among openers
Opening with SMARM left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.78 average. It ranks #10,731 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
43
3 guesses
751
4 guesses
1,263
5 guesses
279
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:
ARS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
78%
Green tile
31%
All gray
22%

Feedback distribution

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

529 answers
322 answers
274 answers
166 answers
127 answers
90 answers
84 answers
74 answers
60 answers
54 answers
53 answers
47 answers
44 answers
38 answers
36 answers
32 answers
28 answers
27 answers
26 answers
26 answers
25 answers
16 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers
9 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1M3A1R1M3
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing SMARM

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SMARM:

22% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
14% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
12% chance
Suggested:
TALON

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

22.3%
TOILE 6.09 bits
13.6%
TOILE 5.23 bits
11.5%
TALON 5.29 bits
7.0%
TOILE 5.12 bits
5.3%
TALER 4.67 bits
3.8%
TOUSE 5.03 bits
3.5%
CLONE 4.73 bits
3.1%
MOULT 4.76 bits
2.5%
CLINE 3.96 bits
2.3%
THALE 4.06 bits

Research on SMARM

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

Optimal play

Opening with SMARM, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.80 guesses and ranks #10,940 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.95 guesses at best and is rank #5,322 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.78, at or below the proven-optimal 3.80, 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 SMAHRM. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SMARM is a kind of compliment.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SMARM sits in the rare band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word few players will have met in print.

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); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).