Possible answer Not used yet C tier for first-turn info

DRESS

DRESS is on the solver's possible-answer list but has not appeared as a Wordle answer yet.

As an opener, it rules out about 91.5% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /dɹes//dɹɛs//dɹɪs/

Verb

To put clothes (or, formerly, armour) on (oneself or someone, a doll, a mannequin, etc.); to clothe.

“He was dressed in the latest fashions.”

Verb

To design, make, provide, or select clothes (for someone).

“The fashion designer was proud to have dressed the queen for the charity event.”

Noun

An item of clothing (usually worn by a woman or young girl) which both covers the upper part of the body and includes a skirt below the waist.

“Amy and Mary looked very pretty in their dresses.”

Noun

An item of outer clothing or set of such clothes (worn by people of all sexes) which is generally decorative and appropriate for a particular occasion, profession, etc.

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

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 DRESS performs as a guess

DRESS 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 79.6% of games, misses completely in 20.4%, and leaves about 202 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,905 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.76 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 DRESS 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.

4.39 Entropy (bits)
202 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
91.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 44% of evaluated openers
1.55 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How DRESS 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.

3.76 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#9,905 Rank among openers
Opening with DRESS left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.76 average. It ranks #9,905 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
31
3 guesses
809
4 guesses
1,227
5 guesses
261
6 guesses
24
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

4/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
ERS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
80%
Green tile
27%
All gray
20%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S I L E D
D R E S S

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches DRESS in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

DRESS can come back 65 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

485 answers
311 answers
204 answers
182 answers
159 answers
105 answers
79 answers
77 answers
56 answers
56 answers
52 answers
50 answers
43 answers
37 answers
37 answers
33 answers
31 answers
29 answers
29 answers
21 answers
19 answers
19 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

D2R1E1S1S1
Total: 6 points

Words With Friends

Total: 6 points

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

Strategy after playing DRESS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing DRESS:

20% chance
Suggested:
TONAL
13% chance
Suggested:
LIANE
9% chance
Suggested:
PATEE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

20.4%
TONAL 5.87 bits
13.1%
LIANE 5.34 bits
8.6%
PATEE 4.54 bits
7.7%
SLANT 5.06 bits
6.7%
CAROL 5.35 bits
4.4%
TRAIN 4.36 bits
3.3%
PLATE 4.64 bits
3.2%
ALOUD 4.84 bits
2.4%
STRAP 4.36 bits
2.4%
ALINE 4.60 bits

Research on DRESS

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

Optimal play

Opening with DRESS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.79 guesses and ranks #10,468 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 DRESS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.76, at or below the proven-optimal 3.79, 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 DREHS.

Rhymes with GUESS PRESS BLESS CHESS CRESS

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, DRESS is a kind of wear or clothing.

Synonyms do set clothes clip crop arrange

Opposites informal

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
DRESS sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 58 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A1); among the first words English learners study.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 4, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 88 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.4 of 5).

In a sentence

I have to dress up.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Is that a new dress?
© 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).