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

ROUSE

Yes, ROUSE was the Wordle answer on September 8, 2023 (Wordle #811).

As an opener, it rules out about 96.1% of possible answers.

Open Solver with ROUSE Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈɹaʊz/

Noun

An arousal.

Noun

The sounding of a bugle in the morning after reveille, to signal that soldiers are to rise from bed, often the rouse.

Verb

To wake (someone) from sleep, or from apathy.

Verb

To be awoken from sleep, or from apathy.

Alternative forms: rouze

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

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

Past Wordle answer

Used once

Past Wordle answer: September 8, 2023 (#811).

See the full page for that puzzle: September 8, 2023 (#811).

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

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How ROUSE performs as a guess

ROUSE 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 89.5% of games, misses completely in 10.5%, and leaves about 92 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,671 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.65 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__S_ R in the 1st position and S in the 4th position _O__E O in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe ROUSE 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.

5.47 Entropy (bits)
92 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
96.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 98% of evaluated openers
0.48 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ROUSE 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.

3.65 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#3,671 Rank among openers
Opening with ROUSE left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.65 average. It ranks #3,671 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
77
3 guesses
915
4 guesses
1,140
5 guesses
196
6 guesses
24
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
3 vowels
Common:
EORSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
90%
Green tile
40%
All gray
10%

Example solver route

R O A T E
R O G U E
R O U S E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches ROUSE in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

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

250 answers
199 answers
153 answers
121 answers
110 answers
102 answers
92 answers
86 answers
85 answers
82 answers
58 answers
53 answers
48 answers
41 answers
38 answers
36 answers
33 answers
30 answers
30 answers
28 answers
28 answers
27 answers
27 answers
26 answers
24 answers
24 answers
24 answers
23 answers
21 answers
19 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

R1O1U1S1E1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 6 points

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

Try next

CANDY LEANT CADET TRAIN SLANT SALTY

Strategy after playing ROUSE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ROUSE:

11% chance
Suggested:
CANDY
8% chance
Suggested:
LEANT
6% chance
Suggested:
CADET

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

10.5% →
CANDY 5.36 bits
8.4% →
LEANT 5.40 bits
6.4% →
CADET 4.38 bits
5.1% →
TRAIN 4.84 bits
4.6% →
LEANT 4.58 bits
4.3% →
SLANT 5.14 bits
3.9% →
SALTY 3.86 bits
3.6% →
TALON 5.05 bits
3.6% →
LUMPY 4.18 bits
3.5% →
ACORN 4.23 bits

Research on ROUSE

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

Optimal play

Opening with ROUSE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.64 guesses and ranks #1,254 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 ROUSE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.65; proven optimal play reaches 3.64. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.

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 ROWS.

Rhymes with HOUSE MOUSE GAUSS LOUSE DOUSE

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, ROUSE is a kind of move or change.

Synonyms charge wake awaken excite dispel

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
ROUSE sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about once per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.5 of 5).

In a sentence

Come on, old dozer, rouse yourself from your dreams!
© tatoeba.org contributor Cangarejo (CC BY 2.0 FR)

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).