Accepted guess Not a possible answer A tier for first-turn info

RAINE

RAINE is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.

As an opener, it rules out about 97.1% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

Obsolete form of rain.

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

No

The solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.

Past Wordle answer

Not used yet

No past answer date found.

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

Why this solver ranks RAINE highly

This solver ranks RAINE highly because it separates the possible answers well, even though it is not itself a possible answer.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 91.6% of games, misses completely in 8.4%, and leaves about 69 possible answers on average.

In the current bounded six-turn policy, it ranks #51 of 182 evaluated openers; exact misses rank first, then average guesses among wins.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #270 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.57 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.

First-turn measures

All four describe RAINE 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.

5.79 Entropy (bits)
69 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
97.1% Avg ruled out
In the top 1% for first-turn entropy
0.16 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How RAINE 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.

3.57 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#270 Rank among openers
Opening with RAINE left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.57 average. It ranks #270 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
89
3 guesses
1,023
4 guesses
1,063
5 guesses
162
6 guesses
16
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

5/5 unique
3 vowels
Common:
AEINR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
92%
Green tile
44%
All gray
8%

Feedback distribution

RAINE can come back 129 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

200 answers
124 answers
121 answers
114 answers
110 answers
103 answers
87 answers
80 answers
75 answers
66 answers
62 answers
53 answers
49 answers
45 answers
38 answers
38 answers
38 answers
35 answers
34 answers
33 answers
31 answers
30 answers
30 answers
30 answers
29 answers
29 answers
28 answers
24 answers
24 answers
22 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

R1A1I1N1E1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 6 points

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

Strategy after playing RAINE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing RAINE:

8% chance
Suggested:
SLOTH
5% chance
Suggested:
SLATY
5% chance
Suggested:
SLEET

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

8.4%
SLOTH 5.52 bits
5.2%
SLATY 5.01 bits
5.1%
SLEET 5.41 bits
4.8%
SLEET 4.27 bits
4.6%
COURT 5.02 bits
4.3%
SPLIT 4.76 bits
3.7%
COAST 4.52 bits
3.4%
SALTY 4.09 bits
3.2%
SOULY 4.68 bits
2.8%
DEALT 4.65 bits

Research on RAINE

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

Optimal play

Opening with RAINE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.60 guesses and ranks #150 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 RAINE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.57, at or below the proven-optimal 3.60, 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 RAYN.

Rhymes with TRAIN BRAIN PLANE CHAIN SPAIN

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
RAINE 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).