GAUGE
Yes, GAUGE was the Wordle answer on October 25, 2025 (Wordle #1589).
As an opener, it rules out about 91.4% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈɡeɪd͡ʒ//ˈɡæɪd͡ʒ/
- Noun
-
A measure; a standard of measure; an instrument to determine dimensions, distance, or capacity; a standard
- Noun
-
An act of measuring.
- Verb
-
To measure or determine with a gauge; to measure the capacity of.
- Verb
-
To estimate.
Alternative forms: gage
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
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Used oncePast Wordle answer: October 25, 2025 (#1589).
See the full page for that puzzle: October 25, 2025 (#1589).
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →How GAUGE performs as a guess
GAUGE 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 83.6% of games, misses completely in 16.4%, and leaves about 203 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,179 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.85 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe GAUGE 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How GAUGE 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches GAUGE in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
GAUGE can come back 81 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for GAUGE; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing GAUGE
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to GAUGE.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing GAUGE:
Research on GAUGE
Game-tree analysis and word research for GAUGE, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with GAUGE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.86 guesses and ranks #12,907 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 GAUGE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.85, at or below the proven-optimal 3.86, 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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, GAUGE is a kind of instrument or standard.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- GAUGE sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 10 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.4 of 5).
In a sentence
Is there an air gauge here?
The fuel gauge is broken.
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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).