5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess B tier for first-turn info

RAYON

Yes, RAYON was the Wordle answer on September 14, 2023 (Wordle #817).

As an opener, it rules out about 94.9% of possible answers.

Open Solver with RAYON Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈɹeɪɒn//reɪˈjɔ̃//rɛˈjɔ̃/

Noun

A manufactured regenerated cellulosic fiber.

Noun

A circular area whose extent is measured by the length of the radius of the circle which bounds it.

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

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

Past Wordle answer

Used once

Past Wordle answer: September 14, 2023 (#817).

See the full page for that puzzle: September 14, 2023 (#817).

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

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How RAYON performs as a guess

RAYON 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 87.7% of games, misses completely in 12.3%, and leaves about 120 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,818 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.63 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.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

R___N R in the 1st position and N in the 5th position R__O_ R in the 1st position and O in the 4th position _A__N A in the 2nd position and N in the 5th position

Explore lists that match the beginning, ending or letters in RAYON.

First-turn measures

All four describe RAYON 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.

5.09 Entropy (bits)
120 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
94.9% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 87% of evaluated openers
0.86 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How RAYON 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.

3.63 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#2,818 Rank among openers
Opening with RAYON left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.63 average. It ranks #2,818 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
62
3 guesses
961
4 guesses
1,117
5 guesses
197
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:
ANOR

Feedback chances

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

Example solver route

R O A T E
R A Y O N

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches RAYON in 2 guesses.

Feedback distribution

RAYON can come back 110 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

291 answers
214 answers
203 answers
155 answers
139 answers
123 answers
108 answers
106 answers
91 answers
53 answers
50 answers
48 answers
44 answers
42 answers
39 answers
34 answers
33 answers
32 answers
30 answers
28 answers
27 answers
24 answers
24 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

R1A1Y4O1N1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Try next

STILE SLATE SUITE SOUCE TRACE SCOTE

Strategy after playing RAYON

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing RAYON:

12% chance
Suggested:
STILE
9% chance
Suggested:
SLATE
9% chance
Suggested:
SUITE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.3% →
STILE 6.19 bits
9.0% →
SLATE 5.73 bits
8.6% →
SUITE 5.38 bits
6.5% →
SOUCE 5.17 bits
5.9% →
TRACE 4.87 bits
5.2% →
SUITE 5.22 bits
4.5% →
SCOTE 4.68 bits
4.5% →
SIDLE 4.73 bits
3.8% →
STILE 4.70 bits
2.2% →
SLAKE 4.34 bits

Research on RAYON

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

Optimal play

Opening with RAYON, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.68 guesses and ranks #3,500 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.82 guesses at best and is rank #2,032 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.63, 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.

How it sounds

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it RAYUHN.

Rhymes with DAYAN

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, RAYON is a kind of material.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
RAYON sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with touch (3.9 of 5).

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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).