GRIPE
Yes, GRIPE has been the Wordle answer on December 23, 2021 (Wordle #187) and August 6, 2026 (Wordle #1874).
As an opener, it rules out about 94.1% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ɡɹaɪp/
- Verb
-
To complain; to whine.
- Verb
-
To annoy or bother.
“What's griping you?”
- Noun
-
A complaint, often a petty or trivial one.
- Noun
-
A wire rope, often used on davits and other life raft launching systems.
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 2 timesPast Wordle answer: December 23, 2021 (#187); August 6, 2026 (#1874).
See the full page for each puzzle: December 23, 2021 (#187); August 6, 2026 (#1874).
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 GRIPE performs as a guess
GRIPE 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 83.3% of games, misses completely in 16.7%, and leaves about 141 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,096 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.60 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 GRIPE 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 GRIPE 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 GRIPE in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
GRIPE can come back 113 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 GRIPE; 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 GRIPE
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to GRIPE.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing GRIPE:
Research on GRIPE
Game-tree analysis and word research for GRIPE, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with GRIPE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.65 guesses and ranks #1,664 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 GRIPE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.60, at or below the proven-optimal 3.65, 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, GRIPE is a kind of objection or kick.
Synonyms BITCH kick beef crab grouse
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- GRIPE 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.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 11, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 28 of 100. Raters found it difficult to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sound (2.9 of 5).
In a sentence
She's got a gripe about it.
Don't gripe about petty stuff like this!
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).