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

ZOAEA

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

As an opener, it rules out about 91.7% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /zoʊˈi.ə/

Noun

Alternative spelling of zoëa.

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 ZOAEA performs as a guess

Wordle accepts ZOAEA 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 83.7% of games, misses completely in 16.3%, and leaves about 196 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #14,433 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.

First-turn measures

All four describe ZOAEA 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.

4.09 Entropy (bits)
196 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
91.7% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 27% of evaluated openers
1.86 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ZOAEA 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
99.87% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#14,433 Rank among openers
Opening with ZOAEA left 3 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 #14,433 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
45
3 guesses
528
4 guesses
1,322
5 guesses
421
6 guesses
35
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
4 vowels
Common:
AEO

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
84%
Green tile
38%
All gray
16%

Feedback distribution

ZOAEA can come back 59 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

387 answers
324 answers
195 answers
185 answers
185 answers
152 answers
150 answers
141 answers
112 answers
92 answers
82 answers
69 answers
53 answers
34 answers
24 answers
20 answers
17 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers
7 answers
7 answers
5 answers
4 answers
4 answers
3 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

Z10O1A1E1A1
Total: 14 points

Words With Friends

Total: 14 points

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

Strategy after playing ZOAEA

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ZOAEA:

16% chance
Suggested:
SPILT
14% chance
Suggested:
STIRE
8% chance
Suggested:
SATIN

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

16.3%
SPILT 5.60 bits
13.6%
STIRE 5.23 bits
8.2%
SATIN 5.02 bits
7.8%
SILER 4.50 bits
7.8%
SNORT 4.96 bits
6.4%
SLANT 4.57 bits
6.3%
COURT 3.98 bits
5.9%
STEAL 4.27 bits
4.7%
SLART 4.39 bits
3.9%
SNORE 4.24 bits

Research on ZOAEA

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

Optimal play

Opening with ZOAEA, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.91 guesses and ranks #14,010 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 ZOAEA can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.95; proven optimal play reaches 3.91. 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 ZOHUH. 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.