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

YLKES

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

No dictionary definition for YLKES is recorded in our sourced data.

As an opener, it rules out about 92.5% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

We do not have a sourced definition for this word yet.

Check YLKES on Wiktionary or report a missing entry.

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 YLKES performs as a guess

Wordle accepts YLKES 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 82.4% of games, misses completely in 17.6%, and leaves about 178 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,250 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.77 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 YLKES 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.

4.45 Entropy (bits)
178 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 48% of evaluated openers
1.49 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How YLKES 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.

3.77 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#10,250 Rank among openers
Opening with YLKES solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.77 average. It ranks #10,250 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
47
3 guesses
768
4 guesses
1,252
5 guesses
261
6 guesses
26
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
1 vowels
Common:
ELS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
23%
All gray
18%

Feedback distribution

YLKES can come back 69 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

418 answers
315 answers
163 answers
159 answers
156 answers
139 answers
121 answers
93 answers
67 answers
64 answers
59 answers
58 answers
46 answers
46 answers
43 answers
43 answers
37 answers
33 answers
25 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
11 answers
10 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

Y4L1K5E1S1
Total: 12 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing YLKES

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing YLKES:

18% chance
Suggested:
TRAIN
13% chance
Suggested:
IRATE
7% chance
Suggested:
STAIR

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.6%
TRAIN 6.22 bits
13.3%
IRATE 5.32 bits
6.9%
STAIR 5.37 bits
6.7%
OATER 4.10 bits
6.6%
DAIRY 4.53 bits
5.9%
ROAST 4.85 bits
5.1%
TRIAL 5.08 bits
3.9%
DEALT 4.47 bits
2.8%
ATONE 4.10 bits
2.7%
DALLY 4.04 bits

Research on YLKES

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

Optimal play

Opening with YLKES, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.75 guesses and ranks #8,259 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.91 guesses at best and is rank #4,463 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.77; proven optimal play reaches 3.75. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.

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 IHLKS. Estimated pronunciation

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

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model.