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

EROSE

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

As an opener, it rules out about 94.7% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Adjective

Irregularly notched, eaten away, as though bitten.

“an erose leaf”

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 EROSE performs as a guess

Wordle accepts EROSE 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 84.5% of games, misses completely in 15.5%, and leaves about 125 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,391 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.71 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 EROSE 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.

5.07 Entropy (bits)
125 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
94.7% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 86% of evaluated openers
0.88 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How EROSE 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.

3.71 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#7,391 Rank among openers
Opening with EROSE left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.71 average. It ranks #7,391 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
58
3 guesses
845
4 guesses
1,197
5 guesses
226
6 guesses
26
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:
EORS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
84%
Green tile
38%
All gray
16%

Feedback distribution

EROSE can come back 94 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

368 answers
166 answers
163 answers
153 answers
141 answers
116 answers
98 answers
83 answers
82 answers
59 answers
50 answers
47 answers
46 answers
43 answers
42 answers
42 answers
40 answers
38 answers
36 answers
28 answers
27 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
21 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
16 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

E1R1O1S1E1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 5 points

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

Strategy after playing EROSE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing EROSE:

16% chance
Suggested:
PAINT
7% chance
Suggested:
TONAL
7% chance
Suggested:
LEANT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

15.5%
PAINT 5.69 bits
7.0%
TONAL 4.97 bits
6.9%
LEANT 5.27 bits
6.4%
SLANT 5.18 bits
5.9%
PALET 4.45 bits
4.9%
MAILE 4.54 bits
4.1%
HARRY 4.68 bits
3.5%
TRAIN 4.31 bits
3.5%
CAROM 4.50 bits
2.5%
SLANT 3.90 bits

Research on EROSE

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

Optimal play

Opening with EROSE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,572 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 EROSE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.71, at or below the proven-optimal 3.71, 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 second syllable Say it IHROHZ. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

Synonyms jagged notched toothed ROUGH

Opposites smooth

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).