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

WRICK

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

As an opener, it rules out about 87.7% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

A painful muscular spasm in the neck or back

Verb

To twist; turn

Verb

To wrench; strain

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 WRICK performs as a guess

Wordle accepts WRICK 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 71.1% of games, misses completely in 28.9%, and leaves about 292 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,003 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.70 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 WRICK 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.

4.14 Entropy (bits)
292 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
87.7% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 29% of evaluated openers
1.81 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How WRICK 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.

3.70 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#7,003 Rank among openers
Opening with WRICK solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.70 average. It ranks #7,003 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
43
3 guesses
859
4 guesses
1,218
5 guesses
224
6 guesses
10
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
1 vowels
Common:
IR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
71%
Green tile
29%
All gray
29%

Feedback distribution

WRICK can come back 79 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

687 answers
335 answers
205 answers
122 answers
114 answers
111 answers
80 answers
56 answers
52 answers
46 answers
46 answers
44 answers
41 answers
29 answers
28 answers
25 answers
24 answers
23 answers
17 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers
8 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

W4R1I1C3K5
Total: 14 points

Words With Friends

Total: 15 points

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

Strategy after playing WRICK

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing WRICK:

29% chance
Suggested:
SLATE
14% chance
Suggested:
SALET
9% chance
Suggested:
LEANT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

28.9%
SLATE 6.36 bits
14.1%
SALET 5.42 bits
8.6%
LEANT 5.18 bits
5.1%
SLANE 5.36 bits
4.8%
HAOLE 5.44 bits
4.7%
STADE 4.85 bits
3.4%
RIVET 4.44 bits
2.4%
LEANT 4.61 bits
2.2%
CANOE 4.79 bits
1.9%
STALE 4.81 bits

Research on WRICK

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

Optimal play

Opening with WRICK, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses and ranks #8,839 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.88 guesses at best and is rank #3,735 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.70, at or below the proven-optimal 3.76, 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 RIHK. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, WRICK is a kind of cramp or wound.

Synonyms turn rick TWIST wrench kink

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).