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

VAIRE

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

Alternative form of vair.

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Use VAIRE in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 95.8% of possible answers.

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

No completed appearance

No appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

How VAIRE performs as a guess

Wordle accepts VAIRE 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 88.5% of games, misses completely in 11.5%, and leaves about 101 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,060 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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 VAIRE 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.

5.28 Entropy (bits)
101 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
95.8% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How VAIRE 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.

3.69 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.74 Spread of game lengths
#6,060 Rank among openers
Opening with VAIRE left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.74 means those games clustered within about 0.74 of a guess of the 3.69 average. It ranks #6,060 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
84
3 guesses
855
4 guesses
1,146
5 guesses
248
6 guesses
19

Composition

5/5 unique
3 vowels
Common:
AEIR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
88%
Green tile
42%
All gray
12%

Feedback distribution

VAIRE can come back 118 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

273 answers
161 answers
161 answers
131 answers
124 answers
119 answers
114 answers
91 answers
89 answers
85 answers
76 answers
59 answers
44 answers
39 answers
37 answers
37 answers
36 answers
36 answers
35 answers
34 answers
34 answers
34 answers
31 answers
30 answers
29 answers
29 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

V4A1I1R1E1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing VAIRE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing VAIRE:

11% chance
Suggested:
SLOTH
7% chance
Suggested:
SLEET
7% chance
Suggested:
SLANT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

11.5% →
SLOTH 5.52 bits
6.8% →
SLEET 5.36 bits
6.8% →
SLANT 5.27 bits
5.5% →
SONLY 4.58 bits
5.2% →
OUTER 4.07 bits
5.0% →
SOOTY 4.62 bits
4.8% →
SONLY 4.41 bits
3.8% →
SOULY 4.64 bits
3.7% →
SLANT 4.72 bits
3.6% →
CLEAT 4.67 bits

Research on VAIRE

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

Optimal play

Opening with VAIRE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #4,995 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 VAIRE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT).