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

BESET

Yes, BESET was the Wordle answer on March 29, 2023 (Wordle #648).

As an opener, it rules out about 91.4% of possible answers.

Open Solver with BESET Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /bɪˈsɛt//bəˈsɛt//bi-/

Verb

Senses relating to surrounding.

Verb

Senses relating to placing or setting.

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: March 29, 2023 (#648).

See the full page for that puzzle: March 29, 2023 (#648).

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

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How BESET performs as a guess

BESET 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 76.5% of games, misses completely in 23.5%, and leaves about 204 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,383 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.73 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.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

B___T B in the 1st position and T in the 5th position B__E_ B in the 1st position and E in the 4th position _E__T E in the 2nd position and T in the 5th position

Explore lists that match the beginning, ending or letters in BESET.

First-turn measures

All four describe BESET 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.

4.62 Entropy (bits)
204 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
91.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 60% of evaluated openers
1.33 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How BESET 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.

3.73 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#8,383 Rank among openers
Opening with BESET 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 3.73 average. It ranks #8,383 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
54
3 guesses
793
4 guesses
1,254
5 guesses
238
6 guesses
13
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

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
EST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
39%
All gray
24%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L E E T
B E S E T

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches BESET in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

BESET can come back 94 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

559 answers
203 answers
198 answers
152 answers
144 answers
106 answers
86 answers
83 answers
61 answers
57 answers
55 answers
53 answers
31 answers
30 answers
30 answers
28 answers
28 answers
28 answers
27 answers
26 answers
24 answers
19 answers
17 answers
16 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

B3E1S1E1T1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Try next

CAROL RAILE SNARL TITAN RAINY SORAL

Strategy after playing BESET

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing BESET:

24% chance
Suggested:
CAROL
9% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
8% chance
Suggested:
SNARL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

23.5% →
CAROL 5.93 bits
8.6% →
RAILE 4.97 bits
8.3% →
SNARL 4.93 bits
6.4% →
TITAN 5.04 bits
6.1% →
RAINY 4.37 bits
4.5% →
SORAL 4.51 bits
3.6% →
LIANE 4.33 bits
3.5% →
CLARY 4.96 bits
2.6% →
ROANY 4.82 bits
2.4% →
ROANY 4.01 bits

Research on BESET

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

Optimal play

Opening with BESET, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,671 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 BESET can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.73; proven optimal play reaches 3.71. 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 second syllable Say it BIHSEHT.

Rhymes with UPSET SWEAT RESET CADET UNMET

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, BESET is a kind of bother or attack.

Synonyms HARRY plague hassle CHEVY provoke harass

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
BESET sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about once per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.

In a sentence

She was beset with worries.
© tatoeba.org contributor sundown (CC BY 2.0 FR)
She was beset by worries.
© tatoeba.org contributor sundown (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).