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

ZIZEL

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

As an opener, it rules out about 87.6% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

The suslik.

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 ZIZEL performs as a guess

Wordle accepts ZIZEL 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 74.7% of games, misses completely in 25.3%, and leaves about 294 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #14,454 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.95 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 ZIZEL 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)
294 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
87.6% 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 ZIZEL 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.

3.95 Avg guesses
99.79% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#14,454 Rank among openers
Opening with ZIZEL left 5 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 3.95 average. It ranks #14,454 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
26
3 guesses
574
4 guesses
1,282
5 guesses
427
6 guesses
40
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:
EIL

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
75%
Green tile
26%
All gray
25%

Feedback distribution

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

600 answers
409 answers
208 answers
200 answers
187 answers
139 answers
106 answers
96 answers
58 answers
53 answers
33 answers
33 answers
32 answers
31 answers
26 answers
23 answers
22 answers
19 answers
19 answers
11 answers
8 answers
8 answers
7 answers
7 answers
4 answers
4 answers
4 answers
3 answers
3 answers
2 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

Z10I1Z10E1L1
Total: 23 points

Words With Friends

Total: 24 points

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

Strategy after playing ZIZEL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ZIZEL:

25% chance
Suggested:
ROAST
17% chance
Suggested:
SEARE
9% chance
Suggested:
SAINT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

25.3%
ROAST 6.00 bits
17.2%
SEARE 5.58 bits
8.8%
SAINT 5.43 bits
8.4%
COAST 5.05 bits
7.9%
ROAST 4.62 bits
5.9%
SCALE 4.60 bits
4.5%
TRINE 4.65 bits
4.0%
COAST 4.27 bits
2.4%
CLING 4.21 bits
2.2%
SONAR 4.29 bits

Research on ZIZEL

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

Optimal play

Opening with ZIZEL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.92 guesses and ranks #14,158 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 ZIZEL can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.95; proven optimal play reaches 3.92. 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

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