RIDGE
Yes, RIDGE was the Wordle answer on February 18, 2024 (Wordle #974).
As an opener, it rules out about 93.5% of possible answers.
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.
Wordle status
A word can be a playable guess without being a possible answer.
Playable guess
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Used oncePast 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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See what the public sample says →How RIDGE performs as a guess
RIDGE 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 82.6% of games, misses completely in 17.4%, and leaves about 153 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
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.
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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
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:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for RIDGE; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
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:
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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, RIDGE is a kind of elevation or solid.
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).
In a sentence
Is this the bus for Park Ridge?
He drove from ridge to ridge.
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; Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).