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

WIPER

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈwaɪpɚ/

Noun

Someone who wipes.

Noun

Something, such as a towel, that is used for wiping.

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

Etymology

From white (bass) and striper.

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it WYPUR.

Rhymes with HYPER PIPER VIPER

In a sentence

I need to buy windshield wiper fluid.
© tatoeba.org contributor ddnktr (CC BY 2.0 FR)
How often do wiper blades need to be replaced?
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use WIPER in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 92.8% 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 WIPER performs as a guess

Wordle accepts WIPER 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 82.1% of games, misses completely in 17.9%, and leaves about 171 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #4,089 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.65 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 WIPER 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.

4.74 Entropy (bits)
171 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.8% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How WIPER 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.

3.65 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#4,089 Rank among openers
Opening with WIPER solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.65 average. It ranks #4,089 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
56
3 guesses
925
4 guesses
1,160
5 guesses
202
6 guesses
11

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
EIR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
28%
All gray
18%

Feedback distribution

WIPER can come back 95 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

426 answers
301 answers
195 answers
166 answers
150 answers
83 answers
82 answers
80 answers
76 answers
75 answers
63 answers
51 answers
37 answers
37 answers
27 answers
25 answers
25 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
19 answers
18 answers
16 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

W4I1P3E1R1
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing WIPER

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing WIPER:

18% chance
Suggested:
SAULT
13% chance
Suggested:
SLATE
8% chance
Suggested:
COAST

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.9% →
SAULT 5.97 bits
12.6% →
SLATE 5.73 bits
8.2% →
COAST 5.60 bits
7.0% →
SLANT 5.50 bits
6.3% →
TEASE 4.75 bits
3.5% →
SLANT 4.65 bits
3.4% →
ROAST 3.54 bits
3.4% →
SALTY 4.28 bits
3.2% →
SLIDE 4.27 bits
3.1% →
SOULY 4.88 bits

Research on WIPER

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

Optimal play

Opening with WIPER, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.68 guesses and ranks #3,626 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 WIPER can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, at or below the proven-optimal 3.68, 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
WIPER sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.6 of 5).

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).