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

VOUGE

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

As an opener, it rules out about 90.6% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /vuʒ/

Noun

Alternative form of voulge.

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

No

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

Past Wordle answer

Not used yet

No past answer date found.

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

How VOUGE performs as a guess

Wordle accepts VOUGE 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 80.0% of games, misses completely in 20.0%, and leaves about 223 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,084 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.76 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 VOUGE 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.

4.37 Entropy (bits)
223 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 43% of evaluated openers
1.57 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How VOUGE 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.

3.76 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#10,084 Rank among openers
Opening with VOUGE left 2 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 3.76 average. It ranks #10,084 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
58
3 guesses
767
4 guesses
1,219
5 guesses
289
6 guesses
19
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
3 vowels
Common:
EOU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
80%
Green tile
35%
All gray
20%

Feedback distribution

VOUGE can come back 90 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

474 answers
417 answers
188 answers
180 answers
137 answers
129 answers
77 answers
65 answers
53 answers
43 answers
40 answers
37 answers
36 answers
31 answers
27 answers
26 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
16 answers
15 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

V4O1U1G2E1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing VOUGE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing VOUGE:

20% chance
Suggested:
SLART
18% chance
Suggested:
ALTER
8% chance
Suggested:
ARSON

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

20.0%
SLART 5.85 bits
17.6%
ALTER 5.31 bits
7.9%
ARSON 5.20 bits
7.6%
SLART 5.18 bits
5.8%
CLARY 4.56 bits
5.4%
SNARY 4.49 bits
3.2%
SLANT 4.76 bits
2.7%
SLANT 4.90 bits
2.2%
SLART 3.98 bits
1.8%
TENOR 4.26 bits

Research on VOUGE

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

Optimal play

Opening with VOUGE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.79 guesses and ranks #10,356 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 VOUGE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.76, at or below the proven-optimal 3.79, 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.

How it sounds

One syllable Say it VOOJ. Estimated pronunciation

This pronunciation is machine-estimated, not taken from a pronunciation dictionary.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, VOUGE is a kind of pike.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model; Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0).