Accepted guess Not a possible answer C tier for first-turn info

RISTS

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

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Proper noun

plural of Rist

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 RISTS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts RISTS 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 78.6% of games, misses completely in 21.4%, and leaves about 210 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,913 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 RISTS 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.

4.37 Entropy (bits)
210 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
91.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 43% of evaluated openers
1.58 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How RISTS 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
99.79% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#8,913 Rank among openers
Opening with RISTS left 5 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 #8,913 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
48
3 guesses
815
4 guesses
1,215
5 guesses
246
6 guesses
25
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
1 vowels
Common:
IRST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
79%
Green tile
21%
All gray
21%

Feedback distribution

RISTS can come back 78 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

507 answers
334 answers
171 answers
154 answers
151 answers
93 answers
82 answers
81 answers
80 answers
78 answers
59 answers
58 answers
53 answers
51 answers
33 answers
31 answers
29 answers
26 answers
26 answers
19 answers
18 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

R1I1S1T1S1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 5 points

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

Strategy after playing RISTS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing RISTS:

21% chance
Suggested:
ALONE
14% chance
Suggested:
CANOE
7% chance
Suggested:
PLANE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

21.4%
ALONE 6.09 bits
14.1%
CANOE 5.30 bits
7.2%
PLANE 5.53 bits
6.5%
ALINE 5.49 bits
6.4%
CLEAT 5.24 bits
3.9%
TREAT 4.68 bits
3.5%
PHARE 4.84 bits
3.4%
LEANT 4.67 bits
3.4%
POLEY 4.38 bits
3.3%
PRIED 4.45 bits

Research on RISTS

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

Optimal play

Opening with RISTS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.77 guesses and ranks #9,381 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 RISTS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.74, at or below the proven-optimal 3.77, 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

One syllable Say it RIHSTS. Estimated pronunciation

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

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model.