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

SORUS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 90.4% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈsɔːɹəs/

Noun

Any reproductive structure, in some lichens and fungi, that produces spores.

Noun

A cluster of sporangia on the edge or underside of a fern frond.

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 SORUS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SORUS 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 76.5% of games, misses completely in 23.5%, and leaves about 229 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,497 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.75 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 SORUS 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.

4.33 Entropy (bits)
229 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 41% of evaluated openers
1.61 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SORUS 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.

3.75 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#9,497 Rank among openers
Opening with SORUS left 3 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 3.75 average. It ranks #9,497 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
43
3 guesses
820
4 guesses
1,193
5 guesses
269
6 guesses
26
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:
ORSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
35%
All gray
24%

Feedback distribution

SORUS can come back 80 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

559 answers
325 answers
165 answers
156 answers
144 answers
124 answers
110 answers
76 answers
62 answers
53 answers
47 answers
40 answers
40 answers
37 answers
30 answers
29 answers
27 answers
27 answers
21 answers
20 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
13 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
9 answers
8 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1O1R1U1S1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 6 points

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

Strategy after playing SORUS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SORUS:

24% chance
Suggested:
LEANT
14% chance
Suggested:
TRIED
7% chance
Suggested:
PLATE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

23.5%
LEANT 6.10 bits
13.7%
TRIED 5.37 bits
7.0%
PLATE 5.49 bits
6.6%
CLINE 5.01 bits
6.1%
ALINE 5.44 bits
5.2%
LEANT 4.53 bits
4.6%
DAINE 4.39 bits
3.2%
PALET 5.12 bits
2.6%
MATEY 4.59 bits
2.2%
TRADE 4.35 bits

Research on SORUS

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

Optimal play

Opening with SORUS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.80 guesses and ranks #10,759 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.96 guesses at best and is rank #5,574 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.75, 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

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

Rhymes with DORIS GORIS

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD).