# Where these words came from

Both lists are built by `build_words.py` from the two source files committed
beside it. Nothing here is copied from the original game.

## Guesses — `guesses.json`, 11,846 words

From [`wordnik/wordlist`](https://github.com/wordnik/wordlist), snapshot
`wordlist-20210729.txt`, **MIT licensed**, filtered to five-letter lowercase
ASCII. Wordnik publishes this list for word-game developers, which is exactly
what it is being used for.

## Answers — `answers.json`, 4,603 words

The **intersection** of the guess list with SCOWL's common-American tier
(`wamerican` 2020.12.07, as shipped in `/usr/share/dict/american-english`),
minus a short hand-curated block list.

The intersection is the point. A word is a possible answer if it is a real
headword (Wordnik) *and* common enough that a non-specialist has plausibly met
it (SCOWL). That rule is stated, reproducible, and ours — as opposed to copying
somebody else's editorial selection of which words are fair.

SCOWL is distributed under a permissive licence requiring attribution, which
`NOTICE` carries.

## What we deliberately did not use

**The original game's 2,315-word answer list.** It is the product of a
deliberate human curation pass, which is the strongest selection-originality
argument of any list in this space and has never been litigated. We do not need
it, so we do not ship it.

We verified separately that the Wordnik list *contains* all 2,315 of those
words — that is a statement about Wordnik's coverage, not a reason to
redistribute the selection.

Consequences worth stating plainly, since they affect every number on the site:

- Our answer pool is **4,603**, roughly twice the original's. This game is
  **harder** than the original, and our measured solver averages are not
  comparable to published figures for it.
- The famous results — SALET as the optimal opener, a 3.4212-guess mean, a
  proven worst case of five — are proven **for the original list**. They are
  cited on the site as exactly that, never as our own ceiling. Our own
  reference player opens **TARES** and averages **3.72**, and that number is
  computed by `solver.optimal_depth_report()` rather than quoted.

## Rebuilding

```bash
uv run python envs/wordle_five/words/build_words.py
```

Deterministic and offline. The output must be byte-identical; if it is not,
`CONFORMANCE.txt` changes too and the TypeScript port has to be re-verified.