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

VAREC

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

The calcined ash of coarse seaweed, used for the manufacture of soda and iodine.

Noun

The seaweed itself; fucus; wrack.

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

Etymology

French varech; of Teutonic origin. See wrack and compare vraic.

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

Use VAREC in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 94.2% 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 VAREC performs as a guess

Wordle accepts VAREC 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 84.1% of games, misses completely in 15.9%, and leaves about 138 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,892 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.70 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 VAREC 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.

4.94 Entropy (bits)
138 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
94.2% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How VAREC 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.

3.70 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#6,892 Rank among openers
Opening with VAREC left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.70 average. It ranks #6,892 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
67
3 guesses
854
4 guesses
1,170
5 guesses
241
6 guesses
21

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AER

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
84%
Green tile
32%
All gray
16%

Feedback distribution

VAREC can come back 100 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

379 answers
231 answers
158 answers
136 answers
122 answers
106 answers
104 answers
97 answers
91 answers
83 answers
80 answers
62 answers
52 answers
45 answers
44 answers
32 answers
30 answers
30 answers
28 answers
26 answers
26 answers
25 answers
23 answers
22 answers
17 answers
14 answers
14 answers
14 answers
14 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

V4A1R1E1C3
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing VAREC

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing VAREC:

16% chance
Suggested:
SOILY
10% chance
Suggested:
STILE
7% chance
Suggested:
SLANT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

15.9% →
SOILY 5.67 bits
9.7% →
STILE 5.36 bits
6.6% →
SLANT 5.40 bits
5.7% →
DROIT 5.00 bits
5.1% →
SLATE 4.97 bits
4.4% →
SONLY 4.60 bits
4.4% →
SOILY 3.57 bits
4.1% →
LUNCH 4.92 bits
3.8% →
SLANT 4.44 bits
3.5% →
SIENT 4.46 bits

Research on VAREC

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

Optimal play

Opening with VAREC, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #4,893 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 VAREC can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.70, 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).