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

RATUS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 95.1% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of ratu

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 RATUS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts RATUS 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 86.7% of games, misses completely in 13.3%, and leaves about 115 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,263 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.61 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 RATUS 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.

5.15 Entropy (bits)
115 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
95.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 90% of evaluated openers
0.80 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How RATUS 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.

3.61 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#1,263 Rank among openers
Opening with RATUS left 3 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 3.61 average. It ranks #1,263 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
57
3 guesses
1,007
4 guesses
1,109
5 guesses
163
6 guesses
15
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:
ARSTU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
87%
Green tile
24%
All gray
13%

Feedback distribution

RATUS can come back 102 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

315 answers
214 answers
173 answers
127 answers
115 answers
115 answers
98 answers
98 answers
70 answers
66 answers
59 answers
56 answers
50 answers
47 answers
43 answers
42 answers
42 answers
36 answers
33 answers
32 answers
28 answers
28 answers
28 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
15 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

R1A1T1U1S1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 6 points

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

Strategy after playing RATUS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing RATUS:

13% chance
Suggested:
CLONE
9% chance
Suggested:
CRIED
7% chance
Suggested:
ALANE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

13.3%
CLONE 5.94 bits
9.0%
CRIED 5.17 bits
7.3%
ALANE 5.49 bits
5.3%
SPILE 5.34 bits
4.8%
CLONE 4.77 bits
4.8%
DRONE 4.75 bits
4.1%
TENTH 4.85 bits
4.1%
CLINE 4.60 bits
2.9%
STILE 4.56 bits
2.8%
SPILE 4.51 bits

Research on RATUS

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

Optimal play

Opening with RATUS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.65 guesses and ranks #1,474 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 RATUS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.61, at or below the proven-optimal 3.65, 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 RATUHS. 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.