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

WAKEN

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

As an opener, it rules out about 92.1% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈweɪkən/

Verb

To wake or rouse from sleep.

Verb

To awaken; to cease to sleep; to be awakened; to stir.

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 WAKEN performs as a guess

WAKEN 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 81.7% of games, misses completely in 18.3%, and leaves about 188 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,852 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.78 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 WAKEN 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.

4.49 Entropy (bits)
188 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
92.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 51% of evaluated openers
1.46 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How WAKEN 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.

3.78 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#10,852 Rank among openers
Opening with WAKEN left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.78 average. It ranks #10,852 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
47
3 guesses
726
4 guesses
1,293
5 guesses
271
6 guesses
16
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:
AEN

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
31%
All gray
18%

Example solver route

R O A T E
L A D E N
W H A C K
W A K E N

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches WAKEN in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

WAKEN can come back 82 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

434 answers
301 answers
222 answers
183 answers
162 answers
130 answers
126 answers
83 answers
60 answers
45 answers
43 answers
42 answers
37 answers
27 answers
26 answers
25 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
21 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
19 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

W4A1K5E1N1
Total: 12 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Strategy after playing WAKEN

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing WAKEN:

18% chance
Suggested:
MOULT
13% chance
Suggested:
STIRE
9% chance
Suggested:
SLART

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

18.3%
MOULT 5.72 bits
12.7%
STIRE 5.20 bits
9.4%
SLART 5.44 bits
7.7%
SLART 5.24 bits
6.8%
OLDER 4.07 bits
5.5%
SATYR 4.13 bits
5.3%
COUNT 5.08 bits
3.5%
SEINE 4.68 bits
2.5%
SHIRK 4.46 bits
1.9%
SAULT 3.76 bits

Research on WAKEN

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

Optimal play

Opening with WAKEN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.74 guesses and ranks #7,501 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 WAKEN can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.78; proven optimal play reaches 3.74. 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

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it WAYKUHN.

Rhymes with TAKEN BACON MACON

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, WAKEN is a kind of change or turn.

Synonyms wake AWAKE awaken ROUSE

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
WAKEN 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.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with internal bodily sensation (3.3 of 5).

In a sentence

I didn't expect you to be waken up so early in the morning.
© tatoeba.org contributor LoverofEnglish (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).