PURGE
Yes, PURGE was the Wordle answer on March 23, 2022 (Wordle #277).
As an opener, it rules out about 92.9% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /pɜːd͡ʒ//pɜɹd͡ʒ/
- Verb
-
To clean thoroughly; to rid of impurities; to cleanse; to clear of (something unwanted).
“After the process, the machine purges the chamber before venting it to remove toxic gases.”
- Verb
-
To remove by cleansing; to wash away.
- Noun
-
An act or instance of purging.
- Noun
-
An evacuation of the bowels or the stomach; a defecation or vomiting.
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: March 23, 2022 (#277).
See the full page for that puzzle: March 23, 2022 (#277).
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 PURGE performs as a guess
PURGE 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 81.1% of games, misses completely in 18.9%, and leaves about 170 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,831 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.65 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 PURGE 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 PURGE 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 PURGE in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
PURGE can come back 105 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 PURGE; 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 PURGE
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to PURGE.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing PURGE:
Research on PURGE
Game-tree analysis and word research for PURGE, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with PURGE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.68 guesses and ranks #3,475 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.82 guesses at best and is rank #1,845 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, at or below the proven-optimal 3.68, 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, PURGE is a kind of clearing or cleaning.
Synonyms sick cast cat CHUCK FLUSH VOMIT
Opposites rehabilitate
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- PURGE sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 4 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
In a sentence
There was a post-coup purge in Turkey.
What's the first thing you'd do if The Purge was real?
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).