Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess C tier for first-turn info

RECUR

Yes, RECUR was the Wordle answer on September 15, 2024 (Wordle #1184).

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ɹɪˈkɜː//ɹɪˈkɜɹ//ɹɪˈkɛː/

Verb

Of an event, situation, etc.: to appear or happen again, especially repeatedly.

“The theme of the prodigal son recurs later in the third act.”

Verb

Of a memory, thought, etc.: to come to the mind again.

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin recurrō (“to hurry or run back; to return, revert”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘back, backwards’) + currō (“to hasten, hurry; to move, travel; to run”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”)).

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

Two syllables, stress on the second syllable Say it RIHKUR.

Rhymes with OCCUR REFER INTER DETER INCUR

Related meanings

Synonyms repeat resort

In a sentence

Next year we'll recur to this issue.
© tatoeba.org contributor astyng (CC BY 2.0 FR)
These are symptoms that may recur after some time.
© tatoeba.org contributor Nuel (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use RECUR in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 91.2% of possible answers.

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 15, 2024 (#1184).

See the full page for that puzzle: September 15, 2024 (#1184).

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

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How RECUR performs as a guess

RECUR is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,384 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 79.6% of games, misses completely in 20.4%, and leaves about 209 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,799 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.74 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 RECUR 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.

4.39 Entropy (bits)
209 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
91.2% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How RECUR 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.

3.74 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#8,799 Rank among openers
Opening with RECUR left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.74 average. It ranks #8,799 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
52
3 guesses
801
4 guesses
1,237
5 guesses
235
6 guesses
26

Composition

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ERU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
80%
Green tile
25%
All gray
20%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S I L E N
R E C U R

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches RECUR in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

RECUR can come back 86 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

486 answers
347 answers
197 answers
164 answers
132 answers
125 answers
118 answers
97 answers
62 answers
60 answers
52 answers
41 answers
38 answers
34 answers
34 answers
27 answers
27 answers
23 answers
20 answers
18 answers
17 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

R1E1C3U1R1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing RECUR

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing RECUR:

20% chance
Suggested:
SALON
15% chance
Suggested:
SLANT
8% chance
Suggested:
DROIT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

20.4% →
SALON 5.96 bits
14.6% →
SLANT 5.70 bits
8.3% →
DROIT 5.24 bits
6.9% →
SLANT 5.03 bits
5.5% →
CHAIN 5.23 bits
5.2% →
TRAPE 4.63 bits
4.9% →
SALTY 4.65 bits
4.1% →
SAINT 3.94 bits
2.6% →
COAST 4.63 bits
2.5% →
SLATE 4.44 bits

Research on RECUR

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

Optimal play

Opening with RECUR, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.79 guesses and ranks #10,420 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 RECUR can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.74, at or below the proven-optimal 3.79, 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
RECUR 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.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.2 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).