5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess F tier opener

RUGBY

Yes, RUGBY was the Wordle answer on December 18, 2025 (Wordle #1643).

As an opener, it rules out about 86.1% of possible answers.

Open Solver with RUGBY Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈɹʌɡbi//ˈɹʊɡbi//ˈɾʌɡbe/

Noun

A form of football in which players can hold or kick an ovoid ball; rugby football. The ball cannot be handled forwards and points are scored by touching the ball to the ground in the area past the opponent's territory or by kicking the ball between goalposts and over a crossbar.

“The scrum is a distinctive element of rugby.”

Noun

The form of the game known as rugby union (see the usage note).

Verb

To play rugby.

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: December 18, 2025 (#1643).

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

Wordle Observatory

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About the project

Add an anonymous result and difficulty rating to the public, aggregate research dataset.

We send only this answer word for puzzle verification, the puzzle number, result, difficulty vote, Hard Mode flag, timezone and a random one-puzzle receipt token. The Observatory stores no answer word, grid, guesses, account, email, IP-derived ID or reusable player identifier. The puzzle-specific receipt prevents duplicate submissions and permits withdrawal; anyone with that token can withdraw, so keep browser-data exports private. See the privacy details.

How RUGBY performs as a guess

RUGBY is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,358 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 69.8% of games, misses completely in 30.2%, and leaves about 329 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete v5 benchmark, it ranks #9,192 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.

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

R___Y R in the 1st position and Y in the 5th position R__B_ R in the 1st position and B in the 4th position _U__Y U in the 2nd position and Y in the 5th position

Try next

SLATE TOISE SALET STONE OLATE ALONE
Words starting with R Words ending with Y

First-turn measures

3.96 Entropy (bits)
329 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
86.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 21% of evaluated openers
1.98 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opener: v5 benchmark

How RUGBY 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
100.0% Win rate
0.71 Volatility
#9,192 v5 opener rank
In the complete v5 snapshot, RUGBY ranks #9,192 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
52
3 guesses
798
4 guesses
1,217
5 guesses
270
6 guesses
16
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.45 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
RU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
70%
Green tile
27%
All gray
30%

Example solver route

R O A T E
R I G I D
R U G B Y

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches RUGBY in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

86 possible patterns. Top outcomes:

712
424
177
138
89
81
57
56
55
53
53
50
35
26
23
20
19
18
17
17
15
15
15
11
11
8
8
8
8
6

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing RUGBY:

30% chance
Suggested:
SLATE
18% chance
Suggested:
TOISE
8% chance
Suggested:
SALET

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

30.2% →
SLATE 6.34 bits
18.0% →
TOISE 5.57 bits
7.5% →
SALET 4.97 bits
5.9% →
STONE 5.25 bits
3.8% →
OLATE 5.16 bits
3.4% →
ALONE 5.32 bits
2.4% →
BRANE 4.53 bits
2.4% →
SMITE 4.58 bits
2.3% →
ATONE 4.57 bits
2.2% →
TARRE 4.33 bits

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

R1U1G2B3Y4
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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