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

FORGE

Yes, FORGE was the Wordle answer on September 24, 2021 (Wordle #97).

As an opener, it rules out about 93.2% of possible answers.

Open Solver with FORGE Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /fɔːd͡ʒ//fɔɹd͡ʒ//fo(ː)ɹd͡ʒ/

Noun

A furnace or hearth where metals are heated prior to hammering them into shape.

Noun

A workshop in which metals are shaped by heating and hammering them.

Verb

To shape a metal by heating and hammering.

Verb

To form or create with concerted effort.

“The politician's recent actions are an effort to forge a relationship with undecided voters.”

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: September 24, 2021 (#97).

See the full page for that puzzle: September 24, 2021 (#97).

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

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How FORGE performs as a guess

FORGE 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 81.8% of games, misses completely in 18.2%, and leaves about 161 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,790 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.65 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.

F___E F in the 1st position and E in the 5th position F__G_ F in the 1st position and G in the 4th position _O__E O in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe FORGE 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.

4.82 Entropy (bits)
161 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
93.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 73% of evaluated openers
1.13 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FORGE 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.

3.65 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#3,790 Rank among openers
Opening with FORGE left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.65 average. It ranks #3,790 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
68
3 guesses
890
4 guesses
1,198
5 guesses
187
6 guesses
9
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:
EOR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
39%
All gray
18%

Example solver route

R O A T E
G N A S H
F O R G E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches FORGE in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

FORGE can come back 103 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

432 answers
233 answers
179 answers
173 answers
144 answers
122 answers
114 answers
81 answers
62 answers
54 answers
54 answers
43 answers
35 answers
29 answers
28 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
23 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4O1R1G2E1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Try next

SNAIL SLANT STAIR SAINT SALTY ARSON

Strategy after playing FORGE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FORGE:

18% chance
Suggested:
SNAIL
10% chance
Suggested:
SLANT
8% chance
Suggested:
STAIR

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

18.2% →
SNAIL 5.91 bits
9.8% →
SLANT 5.55 bits
7.5% →
STAIR 4.34 bits
7.3% →
SLANT 5.29 bits
6.1% →
SAINT 5.28 bits
5.1% →
SLANT 5.05 bits
4.8% →
SALTY 4.45 bits
3.4% →
ARSON 4.20 bits
2.6% →
SLANT 4.94 bits
2.3% →
CRAPE 3.76 bits

Research on FORGE

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

Optimal play

Opening with FORGE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #4,496 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 FORGE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, at or below the proven-optimal 3.70, 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 FAWRJ.

Rhymes with GORGE

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, FORGE is a kind of furnace or work.

Synonyms work form fashion SHAPE fake hammer

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
FORGE sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 6 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 10, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 43 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.1 of 5).

In a sentence

The smith is working at his forge.
© tatoeba.org contributor Hybrid (CC BY 2.0 FR)
I forge my own destiny.
© tatoeba.org contributor AlanF_US (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); Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).