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

VICED

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

As an opener, it rules out about 90.4% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Adjective

Held clamped by a vice or something with a similar squeezing action.

Adjective

Maintaining a vice-like grip.

Verb

simple past and past participle of vice

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 VICED performs as a guess

Wordle accepts VICED 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 77.2% of games, misses completely in 22.8%, and leaves about 228 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,839 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 VICED 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.

4.37 Entropy (bits)
228 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 43% of evaluated openers
1.58 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How VICED 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
99.92% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#6,839 Rank among openers
Opening with VICED left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.70 average. It ranks #6,839 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
55
3 guesses
836
4 guesses
1,234
5 guesses
215
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
2 vowels
Common:
EI

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
77%
Green tile
27%
All gray
23%

Feedback distribution

VICED can come back 90 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

541 answers
345 answers
180 answers
170 answers
158 answers
88 answers
87 answers
75 answers
73 answers
65 answers
61 answers
38 answers
33 answers
23 answers
21 answers
21 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

V4I1C3E1D2
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Strategy after playing VICED

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing VICED:

23% chance
Suggested:
ROAST
15% chance
Suggested:
SLART
8% chance
Suggested:
SLANT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

22.8%
ROAST 6.02 bits
14.5%
SLART 5.89 bits
7.6%
SLANT 5.69 bits
7.2%
SOLAR 4.69 bits
6.7%
SLART 5.24 bits
3.7%
SEARE 4.96 bits
3.7%
SAINT 4.50 bits
3.2%
SALTY 4.28 bits
3.1%
DOWDY 4.41 bits
2.7%
DEARE 4.60 bits

Research on VICED

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

Optimal play

Opening with VICED, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.73 guesses and ranks #7,147 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 VICED can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.70, at or below the proven-optimal 3.73, 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 VYST. 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.