Possible answer Not used yet C tier for first-turn info

WAIVE

WAIVE is on the solver's possible-answer list but has not appeared as a Wordle answer yet.

As an opener, it rules out about 93.1% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /weɪv//wɛjv//wæɪv/

Verb

To relinquish (a right etc.); to give up claim to; to forgo.

“If you waive the right to be silent, anything you say can be used against you in a court of law.”

Verb

To put aside, avoid.

Noun

A woman put out of the protection of the law; an outlawed woman.

Noun

A waif; a castaway.

Alternative forms: wave

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

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 WAIVE performs as a guess

WAIVE 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 84.0% of games, misses completely in 16.0%, and leaves about 163 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #11,261 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.79 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.

First-turn measures

All four describe WAIVE 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.

4.60 Entropy (bits)
163 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
93.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 59% of evaluated openers
1.35 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How WAIVE 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.

3.79 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.74 Spread of game lengths
#11,261 Rank among openers
Opening with WAIVE left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.74 means those games clustered within about 0.74 of a guess of the 3.79 average. It ranks #11,261 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
63
3 guesses
719
4 guesses
1,241
5 guesses
303
6 guesses
26
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:
AEI

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
84%
Green tile
39%
All gray
16%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S M I L Y
N A I V E
W A I V E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches WAIVE in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

WAIVE can come back 87 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

381 answers
252 answers
241 answers
151 answers
141 answers
139 answers
129 answers
113 answers
85 answers
69 answers
53 answers
50 answers
46 answers
40 answers
35 answers
33 answers
31 answers
28 answers
26 answers
25 answers
24 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

W4A1I1V4E1
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing WAIVE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing WAIVE:

16% chance
Suggested:
STORY
11% chance
Suggested:
SETER
10% chance
Suggested:
SLART

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

16.0%
STORY 5.56 bits
10.6%
SETER 5.51 bits
10.2%
SLART 5.39 bits
6.4%
PINTO 4.78 bits
5.9%
SONLY 4.39 bits
5.9%
ROUSE 4.55 bits
5.4%
ALERT 4.64 bits
4.8%
SLANT 4.60 bits
3.6%
SLART 4.31 bits
2.9%
RIPEN 4.62 bits

Research on WAIVE

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

Optimal play

Opening with WAIVE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.79 guesses and ranks #10,211 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 WAIVE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.79, 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 WAYV.

Rhymes with BRAVE GRAVE SLAVE SHAVE CRAVE

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, WAIVE is a kind of move or abandon.

Synonyms forfeit relinquish

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
WAIVE sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 2 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (1.6 of 5).

In a sentence

Can you waive the fee for me?
© tatoeba.org contributor potatoindespair (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Tom does not want to waive his right to a jury trial.
© tatoeba.org contributor CarpeLanam (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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).