Accepted guess Not a possible answer C tier for first-turn info

EDUCE

EDUCE is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.

As an opener, it rules out about 89.3% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ɪˈduːs//ə-//ɪˈdjuːs/

Verb

To infer or deduce (a result, theory etc.) from existing data or premises.

Verb

To draw out or bring forth from some basic or potential state; to elicit, to develop.

Noun

An inference.

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

No

The solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.

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 EDUCE performs as a guess

Wordle accepts EDUCE as a guess, but the solver does not list it as a possible answer.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 73.8% of games, misses completely in 26.2%, and leaves about 254 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,287 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.75 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 EDUCE 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.

4.24 Entropy (bits)
254 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
89.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 35% of evaluated openers
1.71 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How EDUCE 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.

3.75 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#9,287 Rank among openers
Opening with EDUCE left 3 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 3.75 average. It ranks #9,287 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
52
3 guesses
776
4 guesses
1,259
5 guesses
245
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

4/5 unique
3 vowels
Common:
EU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
74%
Green tile
31%
All gray
26%

Feedback distribution

EDUCE can come back 80 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

621 answers
310 answers
196 answers
136 answers
134 answers
125 answers
77 answers
76 answers
66 answers
53 answers
43 answers
37 answers
32 answers
31 answers
30 answers
28 answers
27 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
20 answers
19 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
10 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

E1D2U1C3E1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing EDUCE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing EDUCE:

26% chance
Suggested:
ROAST
13% chance
Suggested:
SOLAR
8% chance
Suggested:
SLART

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

26.2%
ROAST 6.05 bits
13.1%
SOLAR 5.26 bits
8.3%
SLART 5.21 bits
5.7%
SURLY 4.65 bits
5.6%
CAROL 5.22 bits
5.3%
DIARY 5.16 bits
3.2%
ARIEL 4.70 bits
3.2%
SLANT 4.86 bits
2.8%
SHART 4.28 bits
2.2%
RESET 4.31 bits

Research on EDUCE

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

Optimal play

Opening with EDUCE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.78 guesses and ranks #9,895 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 EDUCE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.75, at or below the proven-optimal 3.78, 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

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it EHJUHS. Estimated pronunciation

This pronunciation is machine-estimated, not taken from a pronunciation dictionary.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, EDUCE is a kind of see or make.

Synonyms extract derive EVOKE elicit

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
EDUCE sits in the rare band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word few players will have met in print.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model; Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).