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

YAUPS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 91.2% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of yaup

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 YAUPS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts YAUPS 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 78.3% of games, misses completely in 21.7%, and leaves about 208 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,353 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.71 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 YAUPS 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.

4.43 Entropy (bits)
208 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
91.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 47% of evaluated openers
1.52 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How YAUPS 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.

3.71 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#7,353 Rank among openers
Opening with YAUPS solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.71 average. It ranks #7,353 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
49
3 guesses
828
4 guesses
1,255
5 guesses
204
6 guesses
18
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:
ASU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
78%
Green tile
23%
All gray
22%

Feedback distribution

YAUPS can come back 81 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

516 answers
317 answers
182 answers
143 answers
140 answers
121 answers
111 answers
70 answers
65 answers
58 answers
48 answers
40 answers
38 answers
37 answers
33 answers
32 answers
32 answers
31 answers
29 answers
25 answers
20 answers
20 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

Y4A1U1P3S1
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing YAUPS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing YAUPS:

22% chance
Suggested:
TONER
13% chance
Suggested:
ALERT
8% chance
Suggested:
STIRE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

21.7%
TONER 6.10 bits
13.4%
ALERT 5.55 bits
7.7%
STIRE 5.48 bits
6.0%
DROLE 5.13 bits
5.9%
RONTE 4.93 bits
5.1%
CUTIE 5.13 bits
4.7%
STALE 4.83 bits
2.9%
TRONE 4.80 bits
2.7%
PRICE 5.11 bits
2.4%
TRINE 3.61 bits

Research on YAUPS

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

Optimal play

Opening with YAUPS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.74 guesses and ranks #7,562 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.87 guesses at best and is rank #3,403 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.71, at or below the proven-optimal 3.74, 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 YAHPS. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, YAUPS is a kind of call.

Synonyms roar howl

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).