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

TUNGS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 90.0% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of tung

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 TUNGS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts TUNGS 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 73.8% of games, misses completely in 26.2%, and leaves about 238 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,675 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.63 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 TUNGS 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.

4.44 Entropy (bits)
238 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 47% of evaluated openers
1.51 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How TUNGS 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.

3.63 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#2,675 Rank among openers
Opening with TUNGS left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.63 average. It ranks #2,675 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
53
3 guesses
959
4 guesses
1,152
5 guesses
175
6 guesses
12
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:
NSTU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
74%
Green tile
22%
All gray
26%

Feedback distribution

TUNGS can come back 91 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

623 answers
231 answers
201 answers
158 answers
129 answers
84 answers
77 answers
73 answers
69 answers
62 answers
53 answers
45 answers
39 answers
32 answers
31 answers
30 answers
29 answers
24 answers
19 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

T1U1N1G2S1
Total: 6 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing TUNGS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing TUNGS:

26% chance
Suggested:
ARIEL
10% chance
Suggested:
PARLE
8% chance
Suggested:
HEART

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

26.2%
ARIEL 6.06 bits
9.7%
PARLE 5.71 bits
8.5%
HEART 5.36 bits
6.7%
ARIEL 5.53 bits
5.4%
RAILE 4.91 bits
3.5%
PAIRE 5.18 bits
3.2%
RAILE 5.26 bits
3.1%
CADIE 4.72 bits
2.9%
MARLE 4.37 bits
2.6%
PLACE 5.06 bits

Research on TUNGS

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

Optimal play

Opening with TUNGS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #5,134 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 #1,875 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.63, at or below the proven-optimal 3.70, 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 TUHNGZ. Estimated pronunciation

This pronunciation is machine-estimated, not taken from a pronunciation dictionary.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, TUNGS is a kind of tree.

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).