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

RATHE

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

As an opener, it rules out about 96.3% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ɹeɪð/

Adjective

Ripening or blooming early.

Adverb

Early in the morning.

Adverb

Quickly.

Alternative forms: rath

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.

How RATHE performs as a guess

Wordle accepts RATHE as a guess, but the solver does not list it as a possible answer.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 88.6% of games, misses completely in 11.4%, and leaves about 88 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #767 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.59 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 RATHE 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.

5.52 Entropy (bits)
88 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
96.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 99% of evaluated openers
0.43 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How RATHE 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.

3.59 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#767 Rank among openers
Opening with RATHE solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.59 average. It ranks #767 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
80
3 guesses
989
4 guesses
1,102
5 guesses
176
6 guesses
7
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
2 vowels
Common:
AERT

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
89%
Green tile
36%
All gray
11%

Feedback distribution

RATHE can come back 117 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

270 answers
125 answers
123 answers
122 answers
121 answers
119 answers
95 answers
90 answers
86 answers
68 answers
59 answers
59 answers
52 answers
52 answers
49 answers
45 answers
32 answers
31 answers
29 answers
29 answers
28 answers
28 answers
28 answers
26 answers
26 answers
26 answers
23 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

R1A1T1H4E1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 7 points

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

Strategy after playing RATHE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing RATHE:

11% chance
Suggested:
SOLID
5% chance
Suggested:
SOILY
5% chance
Suggested:
SLAIN

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

11.4%
SOLID 5.58 bits
5.3%
SOILY 3.92 bits
5.2%
SLAIN 5.06 bits
5.1%
SOILY 4.70 bits
5.1%
OLDEN 5.13 bits
5.0%
CRONY 4.61 bits
4.0%
SNOUT 5.09 bits
3.8%
SONLY 4.67 bits
3.6%
GROAN 4.22 bits
2.9%
PLUSH 4.62 bits

Research on RATHE

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

Optimal play

Opening with RATHE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.62 guesses and ranks #448 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 RATHE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.59, at or below the proven-optimal 3.62, 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 RAYTH.

Rhymes with BATHE LATHE MATHE

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
RATHE sits in the rare band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word few players will have met in print.

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).