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

TARSE

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

As an opener, it rules out about 97.1% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /tɑːɹs/

Noun

The tarsus (seven bones in the ankle).

Noun

A male falcon.

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.

Why this solver ranks TARSE highly

This solver ranks TARSE highly because it separates the possible answers well, even though it is not itself a possible answer.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 90.1% of games, misses completely in 9.9%, and leaves about 68 possible answers on average.

In the current bounded six-turn policy, it ranks #2 of 182 evaluated openers; exact misses rank first, then average guesses among wins.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #19 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.53 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 TARSE 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.

5.95 Entropy (bits)
68 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
97.1% Avg ruled out
Highest measured first-turn entropy
Within 0.1 bits of the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How TARSE 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.

3.53 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#19 Rank among openers
Opening with TARSE left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.53 average. It ranks #19 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
104
3 guesses
1,042
4 guesses
1,064
5 guesses
128
6 guesses
13
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
2 vowels
Common:
AERST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
90%
Green tile
42%
All gray
10%

Feedback distribution

TARSE can come back 148 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

235 answers
119 answers
116 answers
101 answers
95 answers
90 answers
87 answers
81 answers
71 answers
68 answers
47 answers
47 answers
43 answers
41 answers
40 answers
35 answers
35 answers
32 answers
29 answers
29 answers
27 answers
27 answers
27 answers
24 answers
24 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
22 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

T1A1R1S1E1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 5 points

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

Strategy after playing TARSE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing TARSE:

10% chance
Suggested:
COULD
5% chance
Suggested:
OLDEN
5% chance
Suggested:
OLDER

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

9.9%
COULD 5.50 bits
5.0%
OLDEN 5.06 bits
4.9%
OLDER 3.92 bits
4.3%
PLAIN 4.84 bits
4.0%
GRIND 4.74 bits
3.8%
GUILE 4.51 bits
3.7%
SLINK 4.73 bits
3.4%
COUNT 4.73 bits
3.0%
DRAIN 4.33 bits
2.9%
CANDY 4.10 bits

Research on TARSE

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

Optimal play

Opening with TARSE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.55 guesses and ranks #1 of 14,855 legal openers. No legal opener has a lower proven average.

In hard mode it averages 3.68 guesses at best and is rank #1 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.53, at or below the proven-optimal 3.55, 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 TAHRS. 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.