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

SOWSE

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

As an opener, it rules out about 90.1% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /saʊs/

Noun

Obsolete form of souse.

Verb

Obsolete spelling of souse.

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 SOWSE performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SOWSE 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 78.6% of games, misses completely in 21.4%, and leaves about 235 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,260 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.86 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 SOWSE 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)
235 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.1% 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 SOWSE 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.

3.86 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#13,260 Rank among openers
Opening with SOWSE left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.73 means those games clustered within about 0.73 of a guess of the 3.86 average. It ranks #13,260 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
49
3 guesses
647
4 guesses
1,280
5 guesses
345
6 guesses
30
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:
EOS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
79%
Green tile
45%
All gray
21%

Feedback distribution

SOWSE can come back 75 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

507 answers
396 answers
213 answers
189 answers
146 answers
140 answers
56 answers
56 answers
44 answers
44 answers
43 answers
40 answers
39 answers
39 answers
35 answers
29 answers
28 answers
21 answers
21 answers
19 answers
17 answers
14 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
12 answers
10 answers
10 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1O1W4S1E1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Strategy after playing SOWSE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SOWSE:

21% chance
Suggested:
TRAIL
17% chance
Suggested:
ALTER
9% chance
Suggested:
RAILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

21.4%
TRAIL 5.86 bits
16.7%
ALTER 5.40 bits
9.0%
RAILE 4.42 bits
8.0%
ACTOR 5.04 bits
6.1%
CLARY 4.47 bits
5.9%
SLANT 4.70 bits
2.4%
PATER 4.22 bits
2.4%
PEART 3.67 bits
1.9%
BRINE 3.50 bits
1.9%
SPORT 3.52 bits

Research on SOWSE

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

Optimal play

Opening with SOWSE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.83 guesses and ranks #11,819 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 SOWSE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.86; proven optimal play reaches 3.83. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.

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 SOHS. Estimated pronunciation

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

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model.