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

RUBOR

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

redness, one of the main signs of inflammation

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

Related meanings

Synonyms inflammation

Use RUBOR in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 86.7% 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

No

The solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.

Past Wordle answer

No completed appearance

No appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.

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

How RUBOR performs as a guess

Wordle accepts RUBOR 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 69.0% of games, misses completely in 31.0%, and leaves about 317 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,287 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.77 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 RUBOR 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.

4.04 Entropy (bits)
317 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
86.7% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How RUBOR 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.

3.77 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#10,287 Rank among openers
Opening with RUBOR 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 3.77 average. It ranks #10,287 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
55
3 guesses
774
4 guesses
1,202
5 guesses
307
6 guesses
15

Composition

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
ORU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
69%
Green tile
26%
All gray
31%

Feedback distribution

RUBOR can come back 91 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

740 answers
271 answers
256 answers
121 answers
110 answers
107 answers
95 answers
72 answers
65 answers
49 answers
49 answers
41 answers
31 answers
31 answers
28 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
14 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers
8 answers
8 answers
8 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

R1U1B3O1R1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing RUBOR

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing RUBOR:

31% chance
Suggested:
SLATE
11% chance
Suggested:
TRACE
11% chance
Suggested:
SLANE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

31.0% →
SLATE 6.30 bits
11.4% →
TRACE 5.65 bits
10.7% →
SLANE 5.14 bits
5.1% →
STANE 5.16 bits
4.6% →
SCONE 4.42 bits
4.5% →
SLIME 4.47 bits
4.0% →
SAINT 4.28 bits
3.0% →
SLANE 5.01 bits
2.7% →
SLANT 4.51 bits
2.1% →
SHUTE 4.00 bits

Research on RUBOR

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

Optimal play

Opening with RUBOR, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.82 guesses and ranks #11,523 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 RUBOR can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.77, at or below the proven-optimal 3.82, 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0).