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

AUGER

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

As an opener, it rules out about 95.1% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈɔː.ɡə(ɹ)//ˈɔ.ɡɚ//ˈɑ.ɡɚ/

Noun

A carpenter's tool for boring holes longer than those bored by a gimlet.

Noun

A snake or plumber's snake (plumbing tool).

Verb

To use an auger; to drill a hole using an auger.

Verb

To proceed in the manner of an auger.

Alternative forms: augre

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 AUGER performs as a guess

Wordle accepts AUGER 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 89.1% of games, misses completely in 10.9%, and leaves about 117 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,747 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.68 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 AUGER 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.

5.13 Entropy (bits)
117 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
95.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 89% of evaluated openers
0.81 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How AUGER 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.

3.68 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#5,747 Rank among openers
Opening with AUGER left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.68 average. It ranks #5,747 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
65
3 guesses
889
4 guesses
1,145
5 guesses
238
6 guesses
16
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

5/5 unique
3 vowels
Common:
AERU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
89%
Green tile
31%
All gray
11%

Feedback distribution

AUGER can come back 110 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

258 answers
245 answers
207 answers
140 answers
121 answers
120 answers
107 answers
91 answers
90 answers
86 answers
73 answers
61 answers
42 answers
38 answers
36 answers
32 answers
30 answers
29 answers
24 answers
24 answers
24 answers
21 answers
20 answers
20 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

A1U1G2E1R1
Total: 6 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Strategy after playing AUGER

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing AUGER:

11% chance
Suggested:
SLOTH
10% chance
Suggested:
SONLY
9% chance
Suggested:
SEINE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

10.9%
SLOTH 5.56 bits
10.3%
SONLY 5.16 bits
8.7%
SEINE 5.31 bits
5.9%
SLATE 5.10 bits
5.1%
PRINT 4.81 bits
5.1%
COAST 4.41 bits
4.5%
TOISE 4.49 bits
3.8%
SIENT 4.29 bits
3.8%
SNOUT 4.82 bits
3.6%
SOILY 3.58 bits

Research on AUGER

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

Optimal play

Opening with AUGER, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #3,850 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 AUGER can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.68, at or below the proven-optimal 3.69, 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.

How it sounds

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

Rhymes with AUGUR

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, AUGER is a kind of snake or drill.

Synonyms SNAKE

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
AUGER sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.

In a sentence

With a large auger, boring a hole into something is much easier.
© tatoeba.org contributor terrywallwork (CC BY 2.0 FR)
The carpenter used an auger to drill holes in the wooden beams.
© tatoeba.org contributor rul (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).