HEDGE
HEDGE is on the solver's possible-answer list and has no appearance in our globally completed Wordle history.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈhɛd͡ʒ//ˈhed͡ʒ//ˈhe̝d͡ʒ/
- Noun
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A thicket of bushes or other shrubbery, especially one planted as a fence between two portions of land, or to separate the parts of a garden.
“He trims the hedge once a week.”
- Noun
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A barrier (often consisting of a line of persons or objects) to protect someone or something from harm.
- Verb
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To enclose with a hedge or hedges.
- Verb
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To obstruct or surround.
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From Middle English hegge, from Old English heċġ, from Proto-West Germanic *haggju, from Proto-Germanic *hagjō, from Proto-Indo-European *kagʰyóm (“enclosure”). Cognate with Dutch heg, German Hecke. Doublet of hey (a choreographic figure) and quay. More at haw.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
One syllable Say it HEHJ.
Related meanings
Synonyms duck SKIRT DODGE PARRY EVADE FUDGE
In a sentence
The cat got through the hedge.
He jumped over the hedge.
Use HEDGE in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 86.9% of possible answers.
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
No completed appearanceNo appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.
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 →HEDGE in Connections
4 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.
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· Puzzle #1115
Reveal this appearance's category
HEDGE appeared in DIVIDING STRUCTURES (yellow group).
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· Puzzle #721
Reveal this appearance's category
HEDGE appeared in ___ FUND (purple group).
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· Puzzle #556
Reveal this appearance's category
HEDGE appeared in INVESTMENT VERBS (blue group).
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· Puzzle #150
Reveal this appearance's category
HEDGE appeared in EQUIVOCATE (blue group).
How HEDGE performs as a guess
HEDGE is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,384 when every answer is treated as equally likely.
Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 68.7% of games, misses completely in 31.3%, and leaves about 313 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,325 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.77 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 HEDGE 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 HEDGE 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 HEDGE in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
HEDGE can come back 76 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 HEDGE; 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 HEDGE
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to HEDGE.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing HEDGE:
Research on HEDGE
Game-tree analysis and word research for HEDGE, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with HEDGE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.79 guesses and ranks #9,994 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 HEDGE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.77, at or below the proven-optimal 3.79, 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.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- HEDGE sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 5 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
- Learner level
- Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.6 of 5).
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); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).