5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess B tier for first-turn info

RACER

Yes, RACER was the Wordle answer on January 16, 2026 (Wordle #1672).

As an opener, it rules out about 93.8% of possible answers.

Open Solver with RACER Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈɹeɪ.sə//ˈɹeɪ.səɹ/

Noun

Agent noun of race: one that races or is used for racing.

Noun

Any of several genera of colubrid snakes.

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

Yes

Included in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.

Possible answer

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

Past Wordle answer

Used once

Past Wordle answer: January 16, 2026 (#1672).

See the full page for that puzzle: January 16, 2026 (#1672).

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

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How RACER performs as a guess

RACER 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 83.7% of games, misses completely in 16.3%, and leaves about 148 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,267 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.73 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.

All gray? Tap a tile to cycle gray → yellow → green.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

R___R R in the 1st position and R in the 5th position R__E_ R in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _A__R A in the 2nd position and R in the 5th position RA_ER R in the 1st position, A in the 2nd position, E in the 4th position, and R in the 5th position

Explore lists that match the beginning, ending or letters in RACER.

First-turn measures

All four describe RACER 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.

4.82 Entropy (bits)
148 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
93.8% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 73% of evaluated openers
1.12 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How RACER 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.

3.73 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#8,267 Rank among openers
Opening with RACER left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.73 means those games clustered within about 0.73 of a guess of the 3.73 average. It ranks #8,267 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
58
3 guesses
835
4 guesses
1,170
5 guesses
265
6 guesses
22
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.46 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AER

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
84%
Green tile
31%
All gray
16%

Example solver route

R O A T E
L Y N C H
R A C E R

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches RACER in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

RACER can come back 99 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

388 answers
246 answers
170 answers
146 answers
136 answers
114 answers
105 answers
94 answers
93 answers
86 answers
82 answers
52 answers
51 answers
44 answers
36 answers
36 answers
27 answers
25 answers
24 answers
22 answers
22 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

Base letter-value totals for RACER; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.

Scrabble

R1A1C3E1R1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.

Try next

SOILY TOILE SLANT DROIT SLATE SONLY

Strategy after playing RACER

What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to RACER.

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing RACER:

16% chance
Suggested:
SOILY
10% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
7% chance
Suggested:
SLANT

Follow-ups for common patterns

Ranked follow-up guesses for the 10 most common feedback patterns.

16.3% →
SOILY 5.69 bits
10.4% →
TOILE 5.32 bits
7.2% →
SLANT 5.36 bits
6.1% →
DROIT 4.97 bits
5.7% →
SLATE 4.96 bits
4.8% →
SONLY 4.68 bits
4.4% →
COUNT 4.89 bits
4.0% →
TWEEN 4.23 bits
3.9% →
POISE 4.53 bits
3.6% →
SLANT 4.30 bits

Research on RACER

Game-tree analysis and word research for RACER, with an explanation for each figure.

Optimal play

Opening with RACER, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.73 guesses and ranks #6,770 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 RACER can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.73, at or below the proven-optimal 3.73, 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

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it RAYSUR.

Rhymes with PACER BASER FACER LACER

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, RACER is a kind of driver or car.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
RACER sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 3 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.4 of 5).

In a sentence

Tom is a street racer.
© tatoeba.org contributor Selena777 (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Cycling through slush on a racer isn't wise, but this year there's no alternative.
© tatoeba.org contributor sundown (CC BY 2.0 FR)

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).