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

EXIST

Yes, EXIST was the Wordle answer on October 18, 2022 (Wordle #486).

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ɪɡˈzɪst/[ɪɡˈzɪst]/əɡˈzɪst/

Verb

to be; have existence; have being or reality

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Etymology

From French exister, from Latin existō, exsistō (“I am, I exist, appear, arise”), from ex (“out”) + sistere (“to set, place”) (related to stare (“to stand, to be stood”)), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *stísteh₂ti, from the root *steh₂- (“stand”); see stand. Compare assist, consist, desist, insist, persist, resist. Cognate with Spanish existir, French exister, Italian esistere, German existieren.

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

Two syllables, stress on the second syllable Say it IHGZIHST.

Rhymes with TWIST WRIST GRIST TRYST FRIST

Related meanings

Synonyms be live survive go last endure

In a sentence

I don't exist to you.
© tatoeba.org contributor Mrew2Vier (CC BY 2.0 FR)
They exist to this day.
© tatoeba.org contributor ddnktr (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use EXIST in a puzzle

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

Open Solver with EXIST Open Word Finder

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: October 18, 2022 (#486).

See the full page for that puzzle: October 18, 2022 (#486).

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

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How verification and withdrawal work

The answer word and timezone are used transiently to verify this page, then discarded. The receipt prevents duplicate submissions and lets this browser withdraw later; anyone with that token can withdraw, so keep browser-data exports private. Read the full privacy details.

How EXIST performs as a guess

EXIST is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,384 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 81.8% of games, misses completely in 18.2%, and leaves about 200 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,260 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.75 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.

E___T E in the 1st position and T in the 5th position E__S_ E in the 1st position and S in the 4th position _X__T X in the 2nd position and T in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe EXIST 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.

4.52 Entropy (bits)
200 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
91.6% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How EXIST 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.

3.75 Avg guesses
99.83% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#9,260 Rank among openers
Opening with EXIST left 4 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.75 average. It ranks #9,260 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
43
3 guesses
820
4 guesses
1,204
5 guesses
253
6 guesses
29

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
EIST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
82%
Green tile
28%
All gray
18%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L E E T
E X I S T

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches EXIST in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

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

436 answers
434 answers
134 answers
130 answers
106 answers
95 answers
87 answers
75 answers
72 answers
55 answers
55 answers
53 answers
50 answers
48 answers
46 answers
43 answers
39 answers
31 answers
30 answers
24 answers
22 answers
22 answers
19 answers
16 answers
16 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

E1X8I1S1T1
Total: 12 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Try next

LAREE CORAL NADIR COALY NORTH TARTE

Strategy after playing EXIST

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing EXIST:

18% chance
Suggested:
LAREE
18% chance
Suggested:
CORAL
6% chance
Suggested:
NADIR

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

18.3% →
LAREE 5.42 bits
18.2% →
CORAL 5.86 bits
5.6% →
NADIR 4.89 bits
5.5% →
COALY 4.96 bits
4.4% →
NORTH 4.92 bits
4.0% →
TARTE 4.92 bits
3.6% →
PARLE 4.68 bits
3.1% →
CLARY 4.59 bits
3.0% →
DINER 4.77 bits
2.3% →
ALURE 4.25 bits

Research on EXIST

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

Optimal play

Opening with EXIST, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.78 guesses and ranks #9,895 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.92 guesses at best and is rank #4,568 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.75, at or below the proven-optimal 3.78, 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
EXIST sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 54 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A2); among the first words English learners study.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 8, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 36 of 100. Raters found it difficult to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.5 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); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).