Possible answer Not used yet F tier for first-turn info

RAZOR

RAZOR is on the solver's possible-answer list but has not appeared as a Wordle answer yet.

As an opener, it rules out about 89.0% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈɹeɪzə//ˈɹeɪzɚ/

Noun

A keen-edged knife of peculiar shape, used in shaving the hair from the face or other parts of the body.

Noun

Any tool or instrument designed for shaving.

Verb

To shave with a razor.

Alternative forms: razour, rasor

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

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 RAZOR performs as a guess

RAZOR 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 76.0% of games, misses completely in 24.0%, and leaves about 262 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,486 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.87 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 RAZOR 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.

3.96 Entropy (bits)
262 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
89.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 21% of evaluated openers
1.99 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How RAZOR 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.

3.87 Avg guesses
99.70% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#13,486 Rank among openers
Opening with RAZOR left 7 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.73 means those games clustered within about 0.73 of a guess of the 3.87 average. It ranks #13,486 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
42
3 guesses
644
4 guesses
1,270
5 guesses
361
6 guesses
29
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

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AOR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
27%
All gray
24%

Example solver route

R O A T E
R A Y O N
R A Z O R

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches RAZOR in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

RAZOR can come back 68 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

570 answers
310 answers
275 answers
202 answers
187 answers
142 answers
110 answers
66 answers
61 answers
53 answers
34 answers
33 answers
29 answers
24 answers
23 answers
23 answers
16 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
8 answers
8 answers
7 answers
7 answers
6 answers
5 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

R1A1Z10O1R1
Total: 14 points

Words With Friends

Total: 14 points

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

Strategy after playing RAZOR

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing RAZOR:

24% chance
Suggested:
STILE
13% chance
Suggested:
SLATE
12% chance
Suggested:
CONTE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

24.0%
STILE 6.09 bits
13.1%
SLATE 5.67 bits
11.6%
CONTE 5.12 bits
8.5%
TRICE 5.36 bits
7.9%
STILE 4.68 bits
6.0%
TRICE 4.59 bits
4.6%
TRONE 4.48 bits
2.8%
SEINE 3.67 bits
2.6%
GLOAT 4.36 bits
2.2%
SPINE 4.07 bits

Research on RAZOR

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

Optimal play

Opening with RAZOR, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.88 guesses and ranks #13,532 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 RAZOR can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.87, at or below the proven-optimal 3.88, 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 RAYZUR.

Rhymes with LASER TASER LAZAR MASER MAZER

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, RAZOR is a kind of cutter or shave.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
RAZOR sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 5 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B1); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 8, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 91 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.

In a sentence

Do you have a razor?
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Did you use my razor?
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)

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); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0).