TREAD
TREAD is on the solver's possible-answer list but has not appeared as a Wordle answer yet.
As an opener, it rules out about 95.8% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /tɹɛd/
- Verb
-
To step or walk (on or across something); to trample.
“He trod back and forth wearily.”
- Verb
-
To step or walk upon.
“Actors tread the boards.”
- Noun
-
A step taken with the foot.
- Noun
-
A manner of stepping.
Alternative forms: treade
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
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Not used yetNo past answer date found.
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →How TREAD performs as a guess
TREAD 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 88.2% of games, misses completely in 11.8%, and leaves about 99 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #317 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.57 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe TREAD 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How TREAD 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches TREAD in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
TREAD can come back 135 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for TREAD; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing TREAD
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to TREAD.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing TREAD:
Research on TREAD
Game-tree analysis and word research for TREAD, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with TREAD, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.60 guesses and ranks #233 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 TREAD can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.57, at or below the proven-optimal 3.60, 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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, TREAD is a kind of step or surface.
Synonyms step pace stride
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- TREAD sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 3 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 10, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 47 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.0 of 5).
In a sentence
Be mindful of where you tread.
Tread on a worm, and it will turn.
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).