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

ZARFS

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of zarf

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

Use ZARFS in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 89.7% 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 ZARFS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts ZARFS 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 76.9% of games, misses completely in 23.1%, and leaves about 246 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #11,449 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.80 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 ZARFS 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.

4.02 Entropy (bits)
246 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
89.7% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ZARFS 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.

3.80 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#11,449 Rank among openers
Opening with ZARFS left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.80 average. It ranks #11,449 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
32
3 guesses
735
4 guesses
1,283
5 guesses
287
6 guesses
15

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
ARS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
77%
Green tile
22%
All gray
23%

Feedback distribution

ZARFS can come back 60 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

550 answers
292 answers
254 answers
235 answers
147 answers
145 answers
114 answers
69 answers
68 answers
54 answers
53 answers
49 answers
37 answers
35 answers
32 answers
27 answers
19 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
8 answers
8 answers
7 answers
7 answers
6 answers
6 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

Z10A1R1F4S1
Total: 17 points

Words With Friends

Total: 17 points

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

Strategy after playing ZARFS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ZARFS:

23% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
12% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
11% chance
Suggested:
TOILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

23.1% →
TOILE 6.09 bits
12.2% →
TOILE 5.15 bits
10.7% →
TOILE 5.49 bits
9.9% →
ALATE 5.48 bits
6.2% →
TONEY 4.66 bits
6.1% →
TRADE 4.66 bits
4.8% →
THALE 4.77 bits
2.9% →
SPITE 4.69 bits
2.9% →
CONTE 4.51 bits
2.3% →
TONEY 3.66 bits

Research on ZARFS

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

Optimal play

Opening with ZARFS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.82 guesses and ranks #11,761 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.96 guesses at best and is rank #5,410 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.80, at or below the proven-optimal 3.82, 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT).