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

RIDGE

Yes, RIDGE was the Wordle answer on February 18, 2024 (Wordle #974).

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ɹɪd͡ʒ/

Noun

The back of any animal; especially the upper or projecting part of the back of a quadruped.

Noun

Any extended protuberance; a projecting line or strip.

“The plough threw up ridges of earth between the furrows.”

Verb

To form into a ridge.

Verb

To extend in ridges.

Alternative forms: rig

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

Etymology

From Middle English rigge, rygge, (also rig, ryg, rug), from Old English hryċġ (“back, spine, ridge, elevated surface”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrugi, from Proto-Germanic *hrugjaz (“back”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)krewk-, *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”).

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

One syllable Say it RIHJ.

Rhymes with MIDGE

In a sentence

Is this the bus for Park Ridge?
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
He drove from ridge to ridge.
© tatoeba.org contributor Ussis (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use RIDGE in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 93.5% of possible answers.

Open Solver with RIDGE Open Word Finder

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: February 18, 2024 (#974).

See the full page for that puzzle: February 18, 2024 (#974).

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

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RIDGE in Connections

2 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.

How RIDGE performs as a guess

RIDGE 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 82.5% of games, misses completely in 17.5%, and leaves about 154 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,402 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___E R in the 1st position and E in the 5th position R__G_ R in the 1st position and G in the 4th position _I__E I in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position RI_GE R in the 1st position, I in the 2nd position, G in the 4th position, and E in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe RIDGE 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.

4.96 Entropy (bits)
154 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
93.5% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How RIDGE 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
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#1,402 Rank among openers
Opening with RIDGE 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 3.61 average. It ranks #1,402 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
76
3 guesses
967
4 guesses
1,121
5 guesses
176
6 guesses
12

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
EIR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
32%
All gray
18%

Example solver route

R O A T E
D U L S E
R I D G E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches RIDGE in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

RIDGE can come back 118 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

417 answers
212 answers
209 answers
158 answers
157 answers
154 answers
69 answers
66 answers
58 answers
55 answers
48 answers
45 answers
42 answers
35 answers
33 answers
25 answers
25 answers
24 answers
22 answers
22 answers
21 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

R1I1D2G2E1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Try next

COAST SALET SLANT SETAE SALTY SAULT

Strategy after playing RIDGE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing RIDGE:

17% chance
Suggested:
COAST
9% chance
Suggested:
COAST
9% chance
Suggested:
SALET

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.5% →
COAST 5.91 bits
8.9% →
COAST 5.65 bits
8.8% →
SALET 5.36 bits
6.6% →
SLANT 5.39 bits
6.6% →
SETAE 4.39 bits
6.5% →
SLANT 5.53 bits
2.9% →
SALTY 4.30 bits
2.8% →
COAST 4.75 bits
2.4% →
COAST 4.34 bits
2.3% →
SAULT 4.73 bits

Research on RIDGE

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

Optimal play

Opening with RIDGE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.64 guesses and ranks #1,122 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 RIDGE 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
RIDGE sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 13 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.6 of 5).

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).