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

SPIRY

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

As an opener, it rules out about 92.5% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈspaɪəɹi/

Adjective

Like or resembling a spire.

Adjective

Abounding in spires.

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 SPIRY performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SPIRY 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 80.6% of games, misses completely in 19.4%, and leaves about 178 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,939 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.64 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 SPIRY 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.

4.75 Entropy (bits)
178 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 68% of evaluated openers
1.20 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SPIRY 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.

3.64 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#2,939 Rank among openers
Opening with SPIRY left 3 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 3.64 average. It ranks #2,939 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
62
3 guesses
975
4 guesses
1,087
5 guesses
210
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

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
IRS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
81%
Green tile
41%
All gray
19%

Feedback distribution

SPIRY can come back 100 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

461 answers
317 answers
158 answers
136 answers
129 answers
95 answers
93 answers
79 answers
65 answers
56 answers
50 answers
47 answers
41 answers
37 answers
34 answers
32 answers
30 answers
28 answers
26 answers
25 answers
23 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
22 answers
21 answers
18 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1P3I1R1Y4
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing SPIRY

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SPIRY:

19% chance
Suggested:
OLATE
13% chance
Suggested:
COATE
7% chance
Suggested:
LEANT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

19.4%
OLATE 6.02 bits
13.4%
COATE 5.45 bits
6.7%
LEANT 5.21 bits
5.7%
ANOLE 4.69 bits
5.4%
LEANT 5.40 bits
4.0%
CLONE 4.90 bits
3.9%
THALE 5.24 bits
3.3%
CADET 4.63 bits
2.7%
ALONE 5.17 bits
2.4%
COATE 4.75 bits

Research on SPIRY

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

Optimal play

Opening with SPIRY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.68 guesses and ranks #3,644 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.82 guesses at best and is rank #1,973 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, at or below the proven-optimal 3.68, 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 SPIHREE. 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.