Possible answer Not used yet C tier for first-turn info

SPURN

SPURN is on the solver's possible-answer list but has not appeared as a Wordle answer yet.

As an opener, it rules out about 92.2% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /spɜːn//spɝn/

Verb

To reject disdainfully; contemn; scorn.

Verb

To reject something by pushing it away with the foot.

Noun

An act of spurning; a scornful rejection.

Noun

A body of coal left to sustain an overhanging mass.

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

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

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 SPURN performs as a guess

SPURN is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,374 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 79.9% of games, misses completely in 20.1%, and leaves about 186 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #935 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.60 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 SPURN 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.

4.71 Entropy (bits)
186 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
92.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 66% of evaluated openers
1.24 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SPURN 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.

3.60 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.67 Spread of game lengths
#935 Rank among openers
Opening with SPURN left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.67 means those games clustered within about 0.67 of a guess of the 3.60 average. It ranks #935 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
52
3 guesses
1,014
4 guesses
1,123
5 guesses
152
6 guesses
11
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:
NRSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
80%
Green tile
31%
All gray
20%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I C K
S H R U B
S P U R N

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SPURN in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

SPURN can come back 93 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

476 answers
335 answers
178 answers
125 answers
96 answers
88 answers
78 answers
74 answers
62 answers
61 answers
57 answers
47 answers
46 answers
43 answers
38 answers
37 answers
28 answers
27 answers
25 answers
25 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
12 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1P3U1R1N1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing SPURN

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SPURN:

20% chance
Suggested:
OLATE
14% chance
Suggested:
CADET
7% chance
Suggested:
TOILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

20.1%
OLATE 6.01 bits
14.1%
CADET 5.45 bits
7.5%
TOILE 5.36 bits
5.3%
THALE 5.51 bits
4.0%
THALE 5.32 bits
3.7%
GLACE 4.70 bits
3.3%
PLATE 5.36 bits
3.1%
BEATY 4.76 bits
2.6%
PLACE 4.51 bits
2.6%
LOAVE 4.49 bits

Research on SPURN

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

Optimal play

Opening with SPURN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.68 guesses and ranks #3,441 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.79 guesses at best and is rank #1,032 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.60, 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

One syllable Say it SPURN.

Rhymes with LEARN STERN CHURN YEARN

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SPURN is a kind of decline.

Synonyms reject disdain SCORN decline refuse

Opposites accept ADMIT

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SPURN sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).