SQUIB
SQUIB is on the solver's possible-answer list but has not appeared as a Wordle answer yet.
As an opener, it rules out about 84.5% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /skwɪb/
- Noun
-
A small firework that is intended to spew sparks rather than explode.
“English Navy squibs set fire to two dozen enemy ships in a Dutch harbor during the 16th-century battle against the Spanish Armada.”
- Noun
-
A similar device used to ignite an explosive or launch a rocket, etc.
- Verb
-
To make a sound like a small explosion.
“A Snider squibbed in the jungle.”
- Verb
-
To dodge something difficult, to bottle.
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
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Not used yetNo past answer date found.
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →How SQUIB performs as a guess
SQUIB 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 66.1% of games, misses completely in 33.9%, and leaves about 369 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,133 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.85 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe SQUIB 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How SQUIB 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches SQUIB in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
SQUIB can come back 49 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for SQUIB; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing SQUIB
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to SQUIB.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing SQUIB:
Research on SQUIB
Game-tree analysis and word research for SQUIB, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with SQUIB, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.89 guesses and ranks #13,635 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 4.04 guesses at best and is rank #6,704 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.85, at or below the proven-optimal 3.89, 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 SKWIHB. Estimated pronunciation
This pronunciation is machine-estimated, not taken from a pronunciation dictionary.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, SQUIB is a kind of explosive.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- SQUIB 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.
In a sentence
Russian fall offensive, ongoing now, so far, is a damp squib.
Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model; Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).