RAVEN
RAVEN is on the solver's possible-answer list but has not appeared as a Wordle answer yet.
As an opener, it rules out about 94.7% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈɹeɪvn̩//ˈɹeɪvən//ˈɹæv(ɪ)n/
- Noun
-
Any of several, generally large, species of birds in the genus Corvus with lustrous black plumage; especially the common raven (Corvus corax).
- Adjective
-
Of the jet-black and often glossy colour of the plumage of a raven (etymology 1, noun sense 1).
“raven curls raven darkness”
- Noun
-
Alternative spelling of ravin.
- Verb
-
Alternative spelling of ravin.
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
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Not used yetNo past answer date found.
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →How RAVEN performs as a guess
RAVEN 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 85.5% of games, misses completely in 14.5%, and leaves about 127 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,931 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.68 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe RAVEN 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How RAVEN 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches RAVEN in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
RAVEN can come back 112 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for RAVEN; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing RAVEN
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to RAVEN.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing RAVEN:
Research on RAVEN
Game-tree analysis and word research for RAVEN, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with RAVEN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.68 guesses and ranks #3,561 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 RAVEN can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.68, at or below the proven-optimal 3.68, 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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, RAVEN is a kind of seize or forage.
Synonyms pig prey devour
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- RAVEN sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 6 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 8, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 94 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.9 of 5).
In a sentence
The raven is as black as coal.
A raven is as black as coal.
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); Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).