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

RECTO

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

As an opener, it rules out about 95.5% of possible answers.

Open Solver with RECTO Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈɹɛk.toʊ/

Noun

The front side of a flat object which is to be examined visually, as for reading, such as a sheet, leaf, coin or medal.

Noun

A writ of right.

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 RECTO performs as a guess

Wordle accepts RECTO 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 88.0% of games, misses completely in 12.0%, and leaves about 106 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,418 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.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

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

R___O R in the 1st position and O in the 5th position R__T_ R in the 1st position and T in the 4th position _E__O E in the 2nd position and O in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe RECTO 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.

5.22 Entropy (bits)
106 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
95.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 93% of evaluated openers
0.73 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How RECTO 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
99.92% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#1,418 Rank among openers
Opening with RECTO left 2 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 3.61 average. It ranks #1,418 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
80
3 guesses
963
4 guesses
1,120
5 guesses
176
6 guesses
13
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:
EORT

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
88%
Green tile
22%
All gray
12%

Feedback distribution

RECTO can come back 112 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

284 answers
218 answers
144 answers
135 answers
110 answers
109 answers
95 answers
88 answers
76 answers
75 answers
69 answers
59 answers
55 answers
49 answers
44 answers
43 answers
39 answers
39 answers
38 answers
33 answers
33 answers
29 answers
29 answers
25 answers
24 answers
24 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

R1E1C3T1O1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Try next

SLAIN AISLE PAISE SADLY SNARL SAINT

Strategy after playing RECTO

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing RECTO:

12% chance
Suggested:
SLAIN
9% chance
Suggested:
AISLE
6% chance
Suggested:
PAISE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.0% →
SLAIN 5.88 bits
9.2% →
AISLE 5.46 bits
6.1% →
PAISE 4.65 bits
5.7% →
SADLY 4.93 bits
4.6% →
SNARL 4.62 bits
4.6% →
SAINT 5.34 bits
4.0% →
CLAIM 5.12 bits
3.7% →
ARSON 4.35 bits
3.2% →
SONDE 4.23 bits
3.2% →
SLANT 4.92 bits

Research on RECTO

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

Optimal play

Opening with RECTO, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.64 guesses and ranks #1,394 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 RECTO can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.61, at or below the proven-optimal 3.64, 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 REHKTOH. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, RECTO is a kind of page.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
RECTO sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model; Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).