5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess C tier for first-turn info

BADGE

Yes, BADGE was the Wordle answer on May 6, 2022 (Wordle #321).

As an opener, it rules out about 92.3% of possible answers.

Open Solver with BADGE Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /bæd͡ʒ/

Noun

A distinctive mark, token, sign, emblem or cognizance, worn on one’s clothing, as an insignia of some rank, or of the membership of an organization.

“the badge of a society; the badge of a policeman”

Noun

A small nameplate, identifying the wearer, and often giving additional information.

Verb

To mark or distinguish with a badge.

“The television was badged as ‘GE’, but wasn’t made by them.”

Verb

To show a badge to.

“He calmed down a lot when the policeman badged him.”

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

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

Past Wordle answer

Used once

Past Wordle answer: May 6, 2022 (#321).

See the full page for that puzzle: May 6, 2022 (#321).

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

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How BADGE performs as a guess

BADGE is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,374 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 81.1% of games, misses completely in 18.9%, and leaves about 182 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,569 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.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

B___E B in the 1st position and E in the 5th position B__G_ B in the 1st position and G in the 4th position _A__E A in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position

Explore lists that match the beginning, ending or letters in BADGE.

First-turn measures

All four describe BADGE 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.

4.69 Entropy (bits)
182 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
92.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 64% of evaluated openers
1.26 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How BADGE 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
100% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#5,569 Rank among openers
Opening with BADGE solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.68 average. It ranks #5,569 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
65
3 guesses
850
4 guesses
1,221
5 guesses
207
6 guesses
10
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
2 vowels
Common:
AE

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
81%
Green tile
38%
All gray
19%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S M I L Y
B O U G H
B A D G E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches BADGE in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

BADGE can come back 101 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

449 answers
288 answers
244 answers
169 answers
130 answers
91 answers
81 answers
79 answers
71 answers
61 answers
49 answers
44 answers
34 answers
33 answers
32 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

B3A1D2G2E1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Try next

HOIST RESET SLART SIREN SATYR WORLD

Strategy after playing BADGE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing BADGE:

19% chance
Suggested:
HOIST
12% chance
Suggested:
RESET
10% chance
Suggested:
SLART

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

18.9% →
HOIST 5.88 bits
12.1% →
RESET 5.37 bits
10.3% →
SLART 5.37 bits
7.1% →
SIREN 4.60 bits
5.5% →
SATYR 4.20 bits
3.8% →
SLART 5.04 bits
3.4% →
WORLD 4.78 bits
3.3% →
SOILY 4.83 bits
3.0% →
SLART 4.50 bits
2.6% →
DINER 4.59 bits

Research on BADGE

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

Optimal play

Opening with BADGE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #3,940 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 BADGE 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

One syllable Say it BAJ.

Rhymes with MADGE CADGE

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, BADGE is a kind of emblem or feature.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
BADGE sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 10 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 5, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 91 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.2 of 5).

In a sentence

I don't have a badge.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Can I see your badge?
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (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); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).