5 FiveLetterWords
Accepted guess Not a possible answer B tier for first-turn info

BETAS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 94.8% of possible answers.

Open Solver with BETAS Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of beta

Verb

third-person singular simple present indicative of beta

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 BETAS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts BETAS 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 87.2% of games, misses completely in 12.8%, and leaves about 124 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,458 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.63 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___S B in the 1st position and S in the 5th position B__A_ B in the 1st position and A in the 4th position _E__S E in the 2nd position and S in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe BETAS 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.

5.07 Entropy (bits)
124 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
94.8% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 87% of evaluated openers
0.88 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How BETAS 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.

3.63 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#2,458 Rank among openers
Opening with BETAS left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.63 average. It ranks #2,458 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
72
3 guesses
914
4 guesses
1,196
5 guesses
160
6 guesses
11
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:
AEST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
87%
Green tile
27%
All gray
13%

Feedback distribution

BETAS can come back 106 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

305 answers
252 answers
206 answers
120 answers
114 answers
107 answers
101 answers
86 answers
77 answers
76 answers
73 answers
71 answers
48 answers
40 answers
38 answers
37 answers
34 answers
29 answers
26 answers
25 answers
23 answers
19 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

B3E1T1A1S1
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Try next

COULD DROLE CAIRN LARGE SLINK TROUT

Strategy after playing BETAS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing BETAS:

13% chance
Suggested:
COULD
11% chance
Suggested:
DROLE
9% chance
Suggested:
CAIRN

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.8% →
COULD 5.62 bits
10.6% →
DROLE 5.28 bits
8.7% →
CAIRN 5.17 bits
5.1% →
LARGE 4.70 bits
4.8% →
SLINK 4.76 bits
4.5% →
TROUT 4.95 bits
4.3% →
SPIRE 4.79 bits
3.6% →
RENEW 4.24 bits
3.2% →
STOUT 4.25 bits
3.2% →
TRICE 4.73 bits

Research on BETAS

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

Optimal play

Opening with BETAS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.67 guesses and ranks #2,744 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 BETAS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.63, at or below the proven-optimal 3.67, 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

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, BETAS is a kind of letter.

Synonyms important exploratory

Opposites unimportant

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
BETAS 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 sight (2.4 of 5).

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).