TRICE
Yes, TRICE was the Wordle answer on September 19, 2022 (Wordle #457).
As an opener, it rules out about 96.2% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /tɹaɪs/
- Verb
-
To drag or haul, especially with a rope; specifically (nautical) to haul or hoist and tie up by means of a rope.
- Noun
-
Now only in the phrase in a trice: a very short time; the blink of an eye, an instant, a moment.
- Verb
-
To pull, to pull out or away, to pull sharply.
- Noun
-
A pulley, a windlass (“form of winch for lifting heavy weights, comprising a cable or rope wound around a cylinder”).
Alternative forms: trise
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
Used oncePast Wordle answer: September 19, 2022 (#457).
See the full page for that puzzle: September 19, 2022 (#457).
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 TRICE performs as a guess
TRICE 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 87.8% of games, misses completely in 12.2%, and leaves about 89 possible answers on average.
In the current bounded six-turn policy, it ranks #17 of 182 evaluated openers; exact misses rank first, then average guesses among wins.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #69 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.55 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 TRICE 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 TRICE 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 TRICE in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
TRICE 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 TRICE; 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 TRICE
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to TRICE.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing TRICE:
Research on TRICE
Game-tree analysis and word research for TRICE, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with TRICE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.58 guesses and ranks #49 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.72 guesses at best and is rank #79 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.55, at or below the proven-optimal 3.58, 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, TRICE is a kind of second or raise.
Synonyms FLASH instant heartbeat wink
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- TRICE sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
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).