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

DEICE

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

As an opener, it rules out about 91.6% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /diːˈaɪs/

Verb

To remove ice from (something).

“They had to move the plane back from the runway to deice the wings before takeoff.”

Verb

To lose its ice; to thaw.

Alternative forms: de-ice

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 DEICE performs as a guess

Wordle accepts DEICE 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 76.5% of games, misses completely in 23.5%, and leaves about 200 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,076 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.67 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 DEICE 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.

4.67 Entropy (bits)
200 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
91.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 63% of evaluated openers
1.28 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How DEICE 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.

3.67 Avg guesses
99.83% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#5,076 Rank among openers
Opening with DEICE left 4 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.67 average. It ranks #5,076 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
51
3 guesses
916
4 guesses
1,155
5 guesses
211
6 guesses
17
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
3 vowels
Common:
EI

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
41%
All gray
24%

Feedback distribution

DEICE can come back 97 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

557 answers
201 answers
180 answers
160 answers
116 answers
115 answers
88 answers
79 answers
68 answers
51 answers
48 answers
46 answers
41 answers
36 answers
36 answers
33 answers
32 answers
30 answers
28 answers
25 answers
23 answers
21 answers
18 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

D2E1I1C3E1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing DEICE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing DEICE:

23% chance
Suggested:
ROAST
8% chance
Suggested:
SOLAR
8% chance
Suggested:
SLART

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

23.5%
ROAST 6.03 bits
8.5%
SOLAR 5.12 bits
7.6%
SLART 5.29 bits
6.7%
SLANT 5.21 bits
4.9%
SLANT 5.17 bits
4.8%
CAROL 5.35 bits
3.7%
SLART 4.90 bits
3.3%
ROANY 4.82 bits
2.9%
SAULT 4.32 bits
2.1%
RIPEN 4.36 bits

Research on DEICE

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

Optimal play

Opening with DEICE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,505 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 DEICE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.67, at or below the proven-optimal 3.71, 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 DEES. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, DEICE is a kind of melt.

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).