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

XEROX

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

As an opener, it rules out about 88.4% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈzɛ.ɹɒks//ˈziː(ə)ɹ.ɑks/[ˈseɾoks]

Noun

A xerograph (copy).

“Hand me that xerox, would you?”

Noun

A xerographer (machine).

“The xerox broke down yesterday.”

Verb

To make a copy using a xerographer.

“I xeroxed the report for all the people at the meeting.”

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 XEROX performs as a guess

Wordle accepts XEROX 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 76.3% of games, misses completely in 23.7%, and leaves about 275 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #14,507 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.96 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.

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

First-turn measures

All four describe XEROX 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.

3.67 Entropy (bits)
275 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
88.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 11% of evaluated openers
2.28 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How XEROX 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.

3.96 Avg guesses
99.83% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#14,507 Rank among openers
Opening with XEROX left 4 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.73 means those games clustered within about 0.73 of a guess of the 3.96 average. It ranks #14,507 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
28
3 guesses
558
4 guesses
1,299
5 guesses
421
6 guesses
44
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

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
EOR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
21%
All gray
24%

Feedback distribution

XEROX can come back 42 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

562 answers
370 answers
240 answers
224 answers
187 answers
134 answers
106 answers
93 answers
65 answers
63 answers
60 answers
60 answers
41 answers
30 answers
27 answers
27 answers
11 answers
11 answers
9 answers
8 answers
6 answers
6 answers
5 answers
3 answers
3 answers
2 answers
2 answers
2 answers
2 answers
2 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

X8E1R1O1X8
Total: 19 points

Words With Friends

Total: 19 points

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

Strategy after playing XEROX

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing XEROX:

24% chance
Suggested:
SAINT
16% chance
Suggested:
SLANT
10% chance
Suggested:
SLANT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

23.7%
SAINT 5.99 bits
15.6%
SLANT 5.71 bits
10.1%
SLANT 5.05 bits
9.4%
AINEE 4.48 bits
7.9%
TRAIN 5.14 bits
5.6%
BLATE 4.55 bits
4.5%
SLANE 4.32 bits
3.9%
SCORN 4.26 bits
2.7%
SOWNE 3.46 bits
2.7%
REATE 3.61 bits

Research on XEROX

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

Optimal play

Opening with XEROX, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.96 guesses and ranks #14,464 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 XEROX can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.96, at or below the proven-optimal 3.96, 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

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, XEROX is a kind of setup or copy.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
XEROX sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about once per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.5 of 5).

In a sentence

I mistook the shredder for a Xerox machine.
© tatoeba.org contributor bandeirante (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).