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

SMOOT

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

As an opener, it rules out about 87.9% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /smuːt/

Noun

A unit of length defined as exactly sixty-seven inches (approximately 1.70 meters).

Noun

A small opening built into a dry-stone wall, fence, or hedge to allow sheep (and hares) to pass through; a thirl.

Alternative forms: smoat, smout, smeut, smot

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 SMOOT performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SMOOT 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 69.5% of games, misses completely in 30.5%, and leaves about 288 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,268 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 SMOOT 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)
288 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
87.9% 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 SMOOT 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
100% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#8,268 Rank among openers
Opening with SMOOT 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 3.73 average. It ranks #8,268 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
55
3 guesses
819
4 guesses
1,217
5 guesses
243
6 guesses
20
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
2 vowels
Common:
OST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
70%
Green tile
36%
All gray
30%

Feedback distribution

SMOOT can come back 86 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

723 answers
197 answers
172 answers
159 answers
122 answers
119 answers
112 answers
91 answers
55 answers
49 answers
44 answers
40 answers
31 answers
30 answers
28 answers
26 answers
25 answers
19 answers
17 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1M3O1O1T1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Strategy after playing SMOOT

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SMOOT:

30% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
8% chance
Suggested:
TARTE
7% chance
Suggested:
RAILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

30.5%
RAILE 6.28 bits
8.3%
TARTE 5.62 bits
7.2%
RAILE 5.22 bits
6.7%
RANCE 4.99 bits
5.1%
ARIEL 5.22 bits
5.0%
MAILE 5.21 bits
4.7%
RAILE 5.19 bits
3.8%
CRANE 4.90 bits
2.3%
RAIKE 4.51 bits
2.1%
THANE 4.06 bits

Research on SMOOT

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

Optimal play

Opening with SMOOT, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses and ranks #8,809 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.89 guesses at best and is rank #4,012 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 3.76, 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 SMOOT.

Rhymes with SHOOT ROUTE FRUIT ACUTE FLUTE

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SMOOT 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.

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).