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

SPIFS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 81.0% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

Synonym of perfins.

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 SPIFS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SPIFS 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 60.2% of games, misses completely in 39.8%, and leaves about 451 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,394 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.82 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 SPIFS 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.

3.49 Entropy (bits)
451 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
81.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 7% of evaluated openers
2.45 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SPIFS 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.

3.82 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#12,394 Rank among openers
Opening with SPIFS left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.82 average. It ranks #12,394 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
35
3 guesses
714
4 guesses
1,256
5 guesses
331
6 guesses
17
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
1 vowels
Common:
IS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
60%
Green tile
28%
All gray
40%

Feedback distribution

SPIFS can come back 60 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

945 answers
243 answers
201 answers
151 answers
140 answers
121 answers
97 answers
46 answers
37 answers
37 answers
31 answers
29 answers
27 answers
27 answers
21 answers
20 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
12 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers
9 answers
8 answers
7 answers
6 answers
5 answers
5 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1P3I1F4S1
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing SPIFS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SPIFS:

40% chance
Suggested:
ROATE
10% chance
Suggested:
CADET
8% chance
Suggested:
LEANT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

39.8%
ROATE 6.10 bits
10.2%
CADET 5.18 bits
8.5%
LEANT 5.35 bits
6.4%
PARLE 5.49 bits
5.9%
CRANE 4.91 bits
5.1%
ROATE 5.50 bits
4.1%
ORATE 5.17 bits
1.9%
PALET 4.50 bits
1.6%
FILET 4.47 bits
1.6%
LEANT 3.94 bits

Research on SPIFS

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

Optimal play

Opening with SPIFS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.86 guesses and ranks #13,081 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.99 guesses at best and is rank #6,102 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.82, at or below the proven-optimal 3.86, 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 SPIHFS. 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.