GOUGE
Yes, GOUGE was the Wordle answer on October 30, 2021 (Wordle #133).
As an opener, it rules out about 89.5% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈɡaʊ̯d͡ʒ/[ˈɡaʊ̯d͡ʒ]/ˈɡæʊ̯d͡ʒ/
- Noun
-
Senses relating to cutting tools.
- Noun
-
A cut or groove, as left by a gouge or something sharp.
“The nail left a deep gouge in the tire.”
- Verb
-
To make a groove, hole, or mark in by scooping with or as if with a gouge.
“Japanese and Chinese printers used to gouge characters in wood.”
- Verb
-
To cheat or impose upon; in particular, to charge an unfairly or unreasonably high price.
“The company has no competition, so it tends to gouge its customers.”
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 30, 2021 (#133).
See the full page for that puzzle: October 30, 2021 (#133).
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 GOUGE performs as a guess
GOUGE 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 79.1% of games, misses completely in 20.9%, and leaves about 249 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,967 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.84 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 GOUGE 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 GOUGE 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 GOUGE in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
GOUGE can come back 74 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 GOUGE; 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 GOUGE
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to GOUGE.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing GOUGE:
Research on GOUGE
Game-tree analysis and word research for GOUGE, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with GOUGE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.86 guesses and ranks #13,016 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 GOUGE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.84, 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.
How it sounds
One syllable Say it GOWJ.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, GOUGE is a kind of mar or cutter.
Synonyms nick squeeze rack dent ding rout
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- GOUGE sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
In a sentence
I'll gouge out your eyes!
I'm going to gouge my eyes out.
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).