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

VIRLS

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of virl

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

Use VIRLS in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 92.7% 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 VIRLS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts VIRLS 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 84.0% of games, misses completely in 16.0%, and leaves about 174 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,676 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.68 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 VIRLS 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.

4.58 Entropy (bits)
174 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.7% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How VIRLS 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.

3.68 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#5,676 Rank among openers
Opening with VIRLS 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 3.68 average. It ranks #5,676 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
52
3 guesses
897
4 guesses
1,170
5 guesses
216
6 guesses
17

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
ILRS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
84%
Green tile
24%
All gray
16%

Feedback distribution

VIRLS can come back 88 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

382 answers
316 answers
227 answers
211 answers
134 answers
94 answers
85 answers
83 answers
78 answers
72 answers
68 answers
58 answers
55 answers
50 answers
34 answers
29 answers
27 answers
23 answers
21 answers
21 answers
19 answers
18 answers
16 answers
15 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

V4I1R1L1S1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing VIRLS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing VIRLS:

16% chance
Suggested:
COATE
13% chance
Suggested:
TRADE
10% chance
Suggested:
STANE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

16.0% →
COATE 5.92 bits
13.3% →
TRADE 5.39 bits
9.5% →
STANE 5.59 bits
8.9% →
COATE 5.39 bits
5.6% →
ATONE 5.24 bits
3.9% →
TRINE 4.65 bits
3.6% →
POTAE 4.74 bits
3.5% →
SPATE 5.00 bits
3.3% →
CONTE 4.47 bits
3.0% →
ATONE 4.47 bits

Research on VIRLS

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

Optimal play

Opening with VIRLS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.73 guesses and ranks #6,725 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.84 guesses at best and is rank #2,493 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.68, 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.

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