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

SNIFT

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /snɪft/

Verb

To snivel.

Verb

To cause a snift; to release pressure and vapor, such as from a steam engine or bottling equipment.

Noun

A deliberate release of pressure and vapor, such as from a steam engine, or bottling equipment.

Noun

A moment; a while.

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Etymology

Imitative. Compare Middle English snifteren (“to sniffle”).

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

Use SNIFT in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 91.1% of possible answers.

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

No completed appearance

No appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

How SNIFT performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SNIFT 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 75.0% of games, misses completely in 25.0%, and leaves about 212 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,024 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.60 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 SNIFT 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.

4.70 Entropy (bits)
212 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
91.1% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SNIFT 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.

3.60 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.67 Spread of game lengths
#1,024 Rank among openers
Opening with SNIFT solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.67 means those games clustered within about 0.67 of a guess of the 3.60 average. It ranks #1,024 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
64
3 guesses
986
4 guesses
1,141
5 guesses
155
6 guesses
8

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
INST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
75%
Green tile
35%
All gray
25%

Feedback distribution

SNIFT can come back 104 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

597 answers
190 answers
168 answers
139 answers
128 answers
113 answers
79 answers
72 answers
61 answers
57 answers
53 answers
46 answers
40 answers
33 answers
33 answers
29 answers
28 answers
27 answers
27 answers
26 answers
22 answers
22 answers
21 answers
21 answers
18 answers
15 answers
15 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1N1I1F4T1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing SNIFT

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SNIFT:

25% chance
Suggested:
CARLE
8% chance
Suggested:
MORAE
7% chance
Suggested:
TARTE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

25.0% →
CARLE 6.21 bits
8.0% →
MORAE 5.39 bits
7.0% →
TARTE 5.64 bits
5.8% →
PARLE 5.40 bits
5.4% →
PARLE 5.20 bits
4.7% →
PHARE 5.20 bits
3.3% →
CARLE 4.94 bits
3.0% →
BRACE 5.10 bits
2.6% →
FERAL 4.94 bits
2.4% →
GRACE 4.26 bits

Research on SNIFT

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

Optimal play

Opening with SNIFT, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.67 guesses and ranks #2,668 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.79 guesses at best and is rank #1,056 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.60, at or below the proven-optimal 3.67, 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT).