Nerdle Glossary

All Terms#

Classic Nerdle

The original daily game: guess a hidden 8-character equation in 6 tries. Nerdle says it selected 17,723 possible Classic solutions from more than 100,000 valid calculations; NerdleBuddy separately generates a 17,723-form model for its tools. See the official FAQ or our how-to guide.

Green tile

This character is in the answer and in exactly this position. Greens never move.

Purple tile

This character is in the answer but in a different position — Nerdle’s version of Wordle’s yellow. It tells you what to keep and where not to put it.

Black tile

This character is not in the answer at all — or, if you played the same character twice, you used it more times than the answer contains.

Feedback pattern

The full row of colours a guess receives, e.g. green-black-purple… Across NerdleBuddy’s model, our opener produces 1,703 distinct patterns. Each unsolved opening branch has a recommended reply, mapped in the second-guess guide.

Opener (starting equation)

Your first guess, chosen before any information exists — so the same opening choice can be used every day. Our model’s top openers are ranked in the strategy guide.

Probe guess

A guess played for information rather than as a winning attempt — sometimes an equation that provably cannot be the answer. NerdleBuddy’s strategy uses probes to split crowded fields; the strategy guide explains how they work.

Lone zero (standalone zero)

A zero standing alone as a number, like the 0 in 0+12=12. NerdleBuddy’s model allows equations with one to the left of the equals sign as guesses but excludes them from its answer pool. A zero result is different: the model includes forms such as 10-3-7=0 as answers.

Guess-only equation

In NerdleBuddy’s model, an equation permitted as a guess but excluded from the modelled answer pool. All 49,623 such forms contain a lone zero on the left side of the equals sign. This is a model classification, not a claim that it reproduces Nerdle’s complete accepted-guess list. Guess-only forms can make useful probes.

Commutative answers

Nerdle’s rule (on by default) that a commutative rearrangement wins: if the answer is 12+34=46, entering 34+12=46 counts as correct — and 9+8+7=24 wins for 7+8+9=24. Players can change this setting; see Nerdle’s current Classic rules.

Order of operations

Multiplication and division evaluate before addition and subtraction, so 3+2*5=13 is valid and 3+2*5=25 is not. Nerdle enforces this on every guess.

Equals position

Where the = sign sits in the 8 slots — always position 5, 6, or 7, which correspond to a 3-, 2-, or 1-digit result. Position 6 is most common (59.3% of NerdleBuddy’s modelled forms).

Expected remaining answers

The average number of possible answer forms that survive a guess’s feedback. NerdleBuddy uses it to build the candidate pool and saved strategy; the live solver then ranks its first visible candidate page by expected total guesses. Explained with real numbers in how the solver works.

Expected total guesses

The average number of guesses a full game takes from a given move under a named follow-up strategy. In NerdleBuddy’s opener-ranking table, the first-ranked opener, 52-34=18, averages about 2.983 under real Nerdle rules.

Decision tree

A precomputed policy that maps feedback states reached by following its recommendations to a next guess. NerdleBuddy’s saved strategy under real Nerdle rules solves all 17,723 modelled forms in at most 5 guesses. Only nine take all 5; see the hardest-answers analysis.

Nerdleverse

Nerdle’s family of more than 20 free maths and number games. It includes daily puzzles, size variants, multi-grid challenges, and custom or replayable formats — not 20 separate daily-only games. See the current official lineup or our guide to the major variants.

Micro / Mini / Midi / Maxi

Equation-length variants: Micro is 5 characters, Mini is 6, Midi is 7, Classic is 8, and Maxi is 10 (with brackets and exponents).

Solver

A tool that takes your guesses and colours and ranks possible next moves. Ours uses the model and saved strategy data to rank suggestions — and it never knows the day’s answer in advance.