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

RATOS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 96.0% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of rato

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 RATOS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts RATOS 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 88.5% of games, misses completely in 11.5%, and leaves about 94 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #344 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.58 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 RATOS 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.

5.38 Entropy (bits)
94 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
96.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 97% of evaluated openers
0.57 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How RATOS 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.

3.58 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#344 Rank among openers
Opening with RATOS left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.58 average. It ranks #344 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
77
3 guesses
1,018
4 guesses
1,095
5 guesses
151
6 guesses
12
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:
AORST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
88%
Green tile
26%
All gray
12%

Feedback distribution

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

273 answers
157 answers
146 answers
141 answers
112 answers
97 answers
95 answers
93 answers
87 answers
75 answers
61 answers
52 answers
47 answers
47 answers
46 answers
40 answers
39 answers
38 answers
38 answers
32 answers
32 answers
30 answers
28 answers
27 answers
27 answers
25 answers
25 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

R1A1T1O1S1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 5 points

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

Strategy after playing RATOS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing RATOS:

11% chance
Suggested:
CLINE
7% chance
Suggested:
CRIED
6% chance
Suggested:
CLONE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

11.5%
CLINE 6.00 bits
6.6%
CRIED 5.09 bits
6.1%
CLONE 5.05 bits
5.9%
ALANE 5.42 bits
4.7%
SPILE 5.22 bits
4.1%
DRICE 4.76 bits
4.0%
FILET 4.89 bits
3.9%
CLINE 4.52 bits
3.7%
CLONE 4.35 bits
3.2%
SHULE 4.77 bits

Research on RATOS

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

Optimal play

Opening with RATOS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.62 guesses and ranks #535 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 RATOS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.58, 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

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it RAHTOHS. Estimated pronunciation

This pronunciation is machine-estimated, not taken from a pronunciation dictionary.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model.