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What “best” means
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Fewest guesses: first maximizes the chance of solving within six, then minimizes average guesses among those wins. Most info: highest entropy on the first guess. Fewest left: smallest average shortlist after the first guess.
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Choose a worked example after solving, or open just the part you need. These explanations are calculated from this recorded puzzle.
Compare the letters after solving
For SHELL, the pattern _H__L fixes positions 2 and 5. It matches 35 of 14757 words in our independent five-letter dictionary: AHULL, CHAWL, CHIEL, CHILL, CHIRL, CHOIL, CHURL, DHOLL ….
12 dictionary words differ at exactly one position: SHALL, SHEAL, SHEEL, SHELF, SHEOL, SHILL, SKELL, SMELL …. Check that differing position before treating a familiar spelling as the solution.
This comparison explains spelling constraints. These are dictionary matches, not the publisher's accepted guesses or historical answer pool.
Why these alphabetical bounds work
SHELL comes after SHELF: the first different letter is at position 5, where SHELL has L and SHELF has F. Earlier positions match.
SHELL comes before SHEND: the first different letter is at position 4, where SHELL has L and SHEND has N. Earlier positions match.
These neighbours come from our independent dictionary. They illustrate alphabetical comparison, not an official distance score or a recorded play session.
Continue with your own clues
Alphabetical distance counts words in a dictionary, rather than the number of letters between guesses. Your game's dictionary can differ from this helper's.