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

SURGE

Yes, SURGE was the Wordle answer on February 12, 2026 (Wordle #1699).

As an opener, it rules out about 94.5% of possible answers.

Open Solver with SURGE Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /sɝd͡ʒ//sɜːd͡ʒ/

Noun

A sudden transient rush, flood or increase.

“He felt a surge of excitement.”

Noun

The maximum amplitude of a vehicle's forward/backward oscillation.

Verb

To rush, flood, or increase suddenly.

“Toaster sales surged last year.”

Verb

To accelerate forwards, particularly suddenly.

“A ship surges forwards, sways sideways and heaves up.”

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: February 12, 2026 (#1699).

See the full page for that puzzle: February 12, 2026 (#1699).

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

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How SURGE performs as a guess

SURGE 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 85.1% of games, misses completely in 14.9%, and leaves about 130 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,288 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.67 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.

S___E S in the 1st position and E in the 5th position S__G_ S in the 1st position and G in the 4th position _U__E U in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe SURGE 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.

5.13 Entropy (bits)
130 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
94.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 89% of evaluated openers
0.82 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SURGE 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.

3.67 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.73 Spread of game lengths
#5,288 Rank among openers
Opening with SURGE left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.73 means those games clustered within about 0.73 of a guess of the 3.67 average. It ranks #5,288 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
76
3 guesses
881
4 guesses
1,147
5 guesses
226
6 guesses
22
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
2 vowels
Common:
ERSU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
85%
Green tile
42%
All gray
15%

Example solver route

R O A T E
P R I S M
S C R E E
S U R G E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SURGE in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

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

354 answers
226 answers
183 answers
177 answers
126 answers
113 answers
71 answers
65 answers
65 answers
57 answers
53 answers
52 answers
51 answers
43 answers
34 answers
32 answers
32 answers
29 answers
27 answers
27 answers
25 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1U1R1G2E1
Total: 6 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Try next

TALON LEANT ARIEL TRAIN STALK ALINE

Strategy after playing SURGE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SURGE:

15% chance
Suggested:
TALON
10% chance
Suggested:
LEANT
8% chance
Suggested:
ARIEL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

14.9% →
TALON 5.80 bits
9.5% →
LEANT 5.24 bits
7.7% →
ARIEL 3.95 bits
7.5% →
TRAIN 5.12 bits
5.3% →
STALK 4.57 bits
4.8% →
ALINE 4.59 bits
3.0% →
COUNT 4.61 bits
2.7% →
COALY 3.75 bits
2.7% →
SAIST 4.65 bits
2.4% →
GLOAT 4.71 bits

Research on SURGE

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

Optimal play

Opening with SURGE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.67 guesses and ranks #2,757 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 SURGE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.67; proven optimal play reaches 3.67. 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 SURJ.

Rhymes with MERGE VERGE PURGE SERGE DIRGE

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SURGE is a kind of flow or increase.

Synonyms rush tide zoom soar

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SURGE sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 7 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 11, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 45 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.1 of 5).

In a sentence

I see a surge in loan growth.
© tatoeba.org contributor Dejo (CC BY 2.0 FR)
He is having a sudden surge of self-confidence!
© tatoeba.org contributor Luornu (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); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).