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

BRAKE

Yes, BRAKE was the Wordle answer on December 20, 2021 (Wordle #184).

As an opener, it rules out about 94.1% of possible answers.

Open Solver with BRAKE Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /bɹeɪk/

Noun

A device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, usually by friction (although other resistive forces, such as electromagnetic fields or aerodynamic drag, can also be used); also, the controls or apparatus used to engage such a mechanism such as the pedal in a car.

“She slammed the brakes when she saw a child run in front of the car.”

Noun

An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista.

Verb

To operate a brake or brakes.

Verb

To be stopped or slowed (as if) by braking.

Alternative forms: break

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: December 20, 2021 (#184).

See the full page for that puzzle: December 20, 2021 (#184).

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

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How BRAKE performs as a guess

BRAKE 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 83.7% of games, misses completely in 16.3%, and leaves about 140 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,573 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.70 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__K_ B in the 1st position and K in the 4th position _R__E R in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe BRAKE 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.

4.98 Entropy (bits)
140 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
94.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 83% of evaluated openers
0.96 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How BRAKE 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.

3.70 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#6,573 Rank among openers
Opening with BRAKE left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.73 means those games clustered within about 0.73 of a guess of the 3.70 average. It ranks #6,573 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
74
3 guesses
850
4 guesses
1,163
5 guesses
246
6 guesses
19
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:
AER

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
84%
Green tile
40%
All gray
16%

Example solver route

R O A T E
C R I S P
B A D G E
B R A K E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches BRAKE in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

BRAKE can come back 108 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

386 answers
216 answers
188 answers
150 answers
148 answers
111 answers
86 answers
78 answers
70 answers
68 answers
54 answers
52 answers
49 answers
44 answers
43 answers
40 answers
33 answers
32 answers
31 answers
27 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
19 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

B3R1A1K5E1
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Try next

SOILY TALON INLET TENOR COURT CAROL

Strategy after playing BRAKE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing BRAKE:

16% chance
Suggested:
SOILY
9% chance
Suggested:
TALON
8% chance
Suggested:
INLET

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

16.3% →
SOILY 5.68 bits
9.1% →
TALON 5.15 bits
7.9% →
INLET 5.10 bits
6.3% →
TENOR 3.98 bits
6.2% →
SOILY 4.66 bits
4.7% →
COURT 5.01 bits
3.6% →
CAROL 4.46 bits
3.3% →
SLANT 4.65 bits
2.9% →
CLEAN 4.46 bits
2.9% →
PRINT 4.08 bits

Research on BRAKE

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

Optimal play

Opening with BRAKE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #4,191 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 BRAKE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.70, 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 BRAYK.

Rhymes with BREAK SHAKE SNAKE STAKE AWAKE

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, BRAKE is a kind of restraint or fern.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
BRAKE sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 9 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Learner level
Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A2); among the first words English learners study.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 78 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.

In a sentence

The brake isn't working well.
© tatoeba.org contributor Dejo (CC BY 2.0 FR)
I have pushed on the brake.
© tatoeba.org contributor joshodude_1308 (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).