Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess C tier for first-turn info

WRUNG

Yes, WRUNG was the Wordle answer on January 30, 2022 (Wordle #225).

As an opener, it rules out about 87.8% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ɹʌŋ//ɹʊŋ//ɹʊŋɡ/

Verb

simple past and past participle of wring

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

Used once

Past Wordle answer: January 30, 2022 (#225).

See the full page for that puzzle: January 30, 2022 (#225).

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

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How WRUNG performs as a guess

WRUNG 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 71.1% of games, misses completely in 28.9%, and leaves about 289 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,352 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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 WRUNG 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.

4.11 Entropy (bits)
289 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
87.8% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 28% of evaluated openers
1.83 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How WRUNG 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.

3.69 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.67 Spread of game lengths
#6,352 Rank among openers
Opening with WRUNG solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.67 means those games clustered within about 0.67 of a guess of the 3.69 average. It ranks #6,352 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
48
3 guesses
841
4 guesses
1,260
5 guesses
195
6 guesses
9
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:
NRU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
71%
Green tile
25%
All gray
29%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I C K
F U R R Y
W R U N G

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches WRUNG in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

WRUNG can come back 77 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

687 answers
333 answers
176 answers
145 answers
116 answers
81 answers
78 answers
70 answers
67 answers
55 answers
44 answers
44 answers
37 answers
34 answers
33 answers
32 answers
26 answers
25 answers
25 answers
22 answers
20 answers
20 answers
18 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
9 answers
9 answers
7 answers
7 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

W4R1U1N1G2
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing WRUNG

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing WRUNG:

29% chance
Suggested:
SLATE
14% chance
Suggested:
SALET
7% chance
Suggested:
CANOE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

28.9%
SLATE 6.43 bits
14.0%
SALET 5.45 bits
7.4%
CANOE 5.35 bits
6.1%
CADIE 5.11 bits
4.9%
SLIME 4.71 bits
3.4%
ALOSE 5.22 bits
3.3%
CLOSE 4.86 bits
2.9%
SURER 4.64 bits
2.8%
SPATE 4.92 bits
2.3%
SIREN 4.49 bits

Research on WRUNG

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

Optimal play

Opening with WRUNG, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.77 guesses and ranks #9,176 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.89 guesses at best and is rank #3,955 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, at or below the proven-optimal 3.77, 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 RUHNG.

Rhymes with YOUNG AMONG SWUNG FLUNG STUNG

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, WRUNG is a kind of movement or twist.

Synonyms squeeze rack wrench distort

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
WRUNG 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.

In a sentence

I wrung out my clothes.
© tatoeba.org contributor mccarras (CC BY 2.0 FR)
He wrung the towel out.
© tatoeba.org contributor Amastan (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).