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.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /saʊs/

Noun

Obsolete form of souse.

Verb

Obsolete spelling of souse.

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

Use SOWSE in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 90.1% 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 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 236 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)
236 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.1% Avg ruled out

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

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:

510 answers
397 answers
214 answers
189 answers
146 answers
140 answers
56 answers
56 answers
44 answers
44 answers
43 answers
41 answers
40 answers
39 answers
36 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 5.39 bits
9.0% →
RAILE 4.42 bits
7.9% →
ACTOR 5.04 bits
6.1% →
CLARY 4.47 bits
5.9% →
SLANT 4.70 bits
2.3% →
PATER 4.22 bits
2.3% →
PEART 3.67 bits
1.8% →
BRINE 3.50 bits
1.8% →
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.

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