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

UNPEN

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

As an opener, it rules out about 88.2% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Verb

To release (from a pen).

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 UNPEN performs as a guess

Wordle accepts UNPEN 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 75.0% of games, misses completely in 25.0%, and leaves about 280 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,872 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.84 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 UNPEN 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.

3.96 Entropy (bits)
280 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
88.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 21% of evaluated openers
1.98 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How UNPEN 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.

3.84 Avg guesses
99.79% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#12,872 Rank among openers
Opening with UNPEN left 5 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.73 means those games clustered within about 0.73 of a guess of the 3.84 average. It ranks #12,872 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
46
3 guesses
674
4 guesses
1,275
5 guesses
323
6 guesses
31
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

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ENU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
75%
Green tile
23%
All gray
25%

Feedback distribution

UNPEN can come back 72 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

593 answers
425 answers
195 answers
187 answers
140 answers
101 answers
81 answers
72 answers
72 answers
57 answers
55 answers
34 answers
33 answers
24 answers
22 answers
22 answers
21 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
15 answers
14 answers
12 answers
12 answers
12 answers
9 answers
7 answers
6 answers
6 answers
6 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

U1N1P3E1N1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing UNPEN

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing UNPEN:

25% chance
Suggested:
TRAIL
18% chance
Suggested:
SLART
8% chance
Suggested:
SORAL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

25.0%
TRAIL 5.98 bits
17.9%
SLART 5.76 bits
8.2%
SORAL 4.98 bits
7.9%
SOLAR 4.59 bits
5.9%
COALY 4.84 bits
4.3%
ROAST 5.25 bits
3.4%
SLART 4.51 bits
3.0%
STAIR 4.82 bits
3.0%
CRINE 4.37 bits
2.4%
COAST 3.91 bits

Research on UNPEN

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

Optimal play

Opening with UNPEN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.82 guesses and ranks #11,713 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

No guaranteed hard-mode solve In hard mode, no strategy that opens with UNPEN can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.84; proven optimal play reaches 3.82. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.

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 second syllable Say it UHNPEHN. 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.