CRUST
Yes, CRUST was the Wordle answer on July 12, 2021 (Wordle #23).
As an opener, it rules out about 93.8% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /kɹʌst//kɹʊst/
- Noun
-
A more solid, dense or hard layer on a surface or boundary.
- Noun
-
The external, hardened layer of certain foodstuffs, including most types of bread, fried meat, etc.
- Verb
-
To cover with a crust.
- Verb
-
To form a crust.
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: July 12, 2021 (#23).
See the full page for that puzzle: July 12, 2021 (#23).
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
Wordle Observatory · optional
Played this Wordle?
Add your result to the public totals · about 20 seconds
Wordle Observatory · optional
Played this Wordle?
Add your result to the public totals · about 20 seconds
Add your result and a quick difficulty rating to help explain how this puzzle played.
See the public dataThank you. Your result now helps describe this puzzle.
See what the public sample says →How CRUST performs as a guess
CRUST 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 81.4% of games, misses completely in 18.6%, and leaves about 147 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #42 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.54 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 CRUST 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 CRUST 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 CRUST in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
CRUST 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 CRUST; 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 CRUST
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to CRUST.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing CRUST:
Research on CRUST
Game-tree analysis and word research for CRUST, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with CRUST, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.63 guesses and ranks #943 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 CRUST can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.54, at or below the proven-optimal 3.63, 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, CRUST is a kind of layer or cover.
Synonyms gall freshness
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- CRUST sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 5 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 5, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 80 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.2 of 5).
In a sentence
I don't eat the crust.
I don't like bread crust.
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); Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).