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

VATUS

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of vatu

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

Use VATUS in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 91.7% 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 VATUS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts VATUS 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 79.0% of games, misses completely in 21.0%, and leaves about 199 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,007 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.74 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 VATUS 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.

4.43 Entropy (bits)
199 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
91.7% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How VATUS 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.

3.74 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#9,007 Rank among openers
Opening with VATUS left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.74 average. It ranks #9,007 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
52
3 guesses
787
4 guesses
1,252
5 guesses
242
6 guesses
19

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ASTU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
79%
Green tile
22%
All gray
21%

Feedback distribution

VATUS can come back 82 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

501 answers
276 answers
172 answers
165 answers
153 answers
148 answers
92 answers
92 answers
88 answers
59 answers
54 answers
50 answers
46 answers
45 answers
32 answers
32 answers
29 answers
25 answers
25 answers
19 answers
19 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

V4A1T1U1S1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing VATUS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing VATUS:

21% chance
Suggested:
DROLE
12% chance
Suggested:
LEARN
7% chance
Suggested:
SPINE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

21.0% →
DROLE 6.01 bits
11.6% →
LEARN 5.48 bits
7.2% →
SPINE 5.37 bits
6.9% →
CLONE 4.84 bits
6.4% →
TRITE 5.38 bits
6.2% →
MORNE 4.71 bits
3.9% →
STIRE 4.64 bits
3.9% →
CHARE 4.67 bits
3.7% →
ALERT 4.73 bits
2.5% →
SHULE 4.22 bits

Research on VATUS

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

Optimal play

Opening with VATUS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses and ranks #8,404 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 VATUS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.74, at or below the proven-optimal 3.76, 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).