BRAID
Yes, BRAID was the Wordle answer on December 9, 2022 (Wordle #538).
As an opener, it rules out about 93.4% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /bɹeɪd/
- Verb
-
To weave together, intertwine (strands of fibers, ribbons, etc.); to arrange (hair) in braids.
- Verb
-
To mix, or make uniformly soft, by beating, rubbing, or straining, as in preparing food.
- Noun
-
A weave of three or more strands of fibers, ribbons, cords or hair often for decoration.
- Noun
-
A stranded wire composed of a number of smaller wires twisted together.
Alternative forms: brayde, breyde, broid, brade
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
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Used oncePast Wordle answer: December 9, 2022 (#538).
See the full page for that puzzle: December 9, 2022 (#538).
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →How BRAID performs as a guess
BRAID 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 83.6% of games, misses completely in 16.4%, and leaves about 156 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,681 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.63 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe BRAID 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How BRAID 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches BRAID in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
BRAID can come back 119 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for BRAID; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing BRAID
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to BRAID.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing BRAID:
Research on BRAID
Game-tree analysis and word research for BRAID, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with BRAID, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.64 guesses and ranks #1,267 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 BRAID can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.63, at or below the proven-optimal 3.64, 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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, BRAID is a kind of hairstyle or trim.
Synonyms TWIST lace
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- BRAID sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 2 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
In a sentence
Can I braid your hair?
Let me braid your hair for you.
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).