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

WOADS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 91.9% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of woad

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 WOADS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts WOADS 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 80.2% of games, misses completely in 19.8%, and leaves about 192 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,083 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 WOADS 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.

4.51 Entropy (bits)
192 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
91.9% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 52% of evaluated openers
1.44 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How WOADS 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
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#7,083 Rank among openers
Opening with WOADS 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 3.70 average. It ranks #7,083 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
51
3 guesses
859
4 guesses
1,187
5 guesses
246
6 guesses
9
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:
AOS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
80%
Green tile
30%
All gray
20%

Feedback distribution

WOADS can come back 83 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

471 answers
300 answers
207 answers
142 answers
133 answers
129 answers
105 answers
92 answers
83 answers
78 answers
68 answers
50 answers
40 answers
33 answers
25 answers
23 answers
23 answers
22 answers
20 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

W4O1A1D2S1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing WOADS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing WOADS:

20% chance
Suggested:
LINER
13% chance
Suggested:
LATER
9% chance
Suggested:
STILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

19.8%
LINER 5.91 bits
12.6%
LATER 5.46 bits
8.7%
STILE 5.36 bits
6.0%
TRINE 5.24 bits
5.6%
CRUET 4.72 bits
5.4%
TRICE 5.18 bits
4.4%
DINER 5.30 bits
3.9%
THALE 4.14 bits
3.5%
SATER 4.71 bits
3.3%
ACTOR 4.41 bits

Research on WOADS

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

Optimal play

Opening with WOADS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.73 guesses and ranks #6,660 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 WOADS 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 WAHDZ. Estimated pronunciation

This pronunciation is machine-estimated, not taken from a pronunciation dictionary.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, WOADS is a kind of dye or herb.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model; Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0).