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

FREES

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

As an opener, it rules out about 91.3% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /fɹiːz/

Verb

third-person singular simple present indicative of free

Noun

plural of free

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 FREES performs as a guess

Wordle accepts FREES 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 77.8% of games, misses completely in 22.2%, and leaves about 206 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,528 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.73 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 FREES 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.

4.51 Entropy (bits)
206 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
91.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 53% of evaluated openers
1.43 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FREES 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.

3.73 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#8,528 Rank among openers
Opening with FREES left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.73 average. It ranks #8,528 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
58
3 guesses
803
4 guesses
1,220
5 guesses
259
6 guesses
13
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
2 vowels
Common:
ERS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
78%
Green tile
34%
All gray
22%

Feedback distribution

FREES can come back 89 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

527 answers
242 answers
242 answers
177 answers
115 answers
104 answers
94 answers
83 answers
79 answers
64 answers
55 answers
44 answers
34 answers
28 answers
26 answers
25 answers
22 answers
22 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4R1E1E1S1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Strategy after playing FREES

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FREES:

22% chance
Suggested:
TONAL
10% chance
Suggested:
SLANT
10% chance
Suggested:
ANILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

22.2%
TONAL 5.81 bits
10.2%
SLANT 5.25 bits
10.2%
ANILE 5.36 bits
7.5%
CAROL 5.25 bits
4.8%
TRAIN 4.23 bits
4.4%
SLANT 4.58 bits
4.0%
POTAE 3.39 bits
3.5%
REACT 4.55 bits
3.3%
LADEN 4.40 bits
2.7%
STRAP 4.53 bits

Research on FREES

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

Optimal play

Opening with FREES, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses and ranks #8,860 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 FREES can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.73, at or below the proven-optimal 3.76, 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 FREEZ.

Rhymes with THESE TREES KNEES SEIZE TEASE

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, FREES is a kind of people or change.

Synonyms release liberal rid LOOSE innocent SPARE

Opposites BOUND obstruct paid FIXED

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
FREES sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 2 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.

In a sentence

It frees the soul from fear.
© tatoeba.org contributor soridsolid (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Knowledge frees us from ignorance.
© tatoeba.org contributor Igider (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).