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

FATED

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈfeɪtɪd/[ˈfeɪ̯ɾɨd]

Adjective

Foreordained, predetermined, established in advance by fate.

Verb

simple past and past participle of fate

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

How it sounds

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

Rhymes with RATED DATED GATED MATED SATED

Related meanings

Synonyms doomed sure certain

Opposites uncertain

In a sentence

I was born on an ill-fated day.
© tatoeba.org contributor Vortarulo (CC BY 2.0 FR)
The ill-fated tunnel collapsed just months after it was opened.
© tatoeba.org contributor Amastan (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use FATED in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 94.1% of possible answers.

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

No completed appearance

No appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.

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

FATED in Connections

1 recorded appearance in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.

How FATED performs as a guess

Wordle accepts FATED 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 85.0% of games, misses completely in 15.0%, and leaves about 140 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,138 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 FATED 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.

4.93 Entropy (bits)
140 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
94.1% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FATED 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
99.96% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#5,138 Rank among openers
Opening with FATED 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 3.67 average. It ranks #5,138 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
75
3 guesses
844
4 guesses
1,221
5 guesses
203
6 guesses
10

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AET

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
85%
Green tile
35%
All gray
15%

Feedback distribution

FATED can come back 104 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

358 answers
244 answers
197 answers
166 answers
129 answers
127 answers
106 answers
85 answers
70 answers
57 answers
56 answers
50 answers
41 answers
38 answers
38 answers
36 answers
35 answers
31 answers
29 answers
27 answers
23 answers
23 answers
21 answers
19 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4A1T1E1D2
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing FATED

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FATED:

15% chance
Suggested:
SOILY
10% chance
Suggested:
SNORE
8% chance
Suggested:
SNARL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

15.0% →
SOILY 5.74 bits
10.2% →
SNORE 5.28 bits
8.3% →
SNARL 5.12 bits
7.0% →
SHOUT 5.35 bits
5.4% →
SENOR 4.44 bits
5.3% →
SNARE 4.54 bits
4.4% →
SONLY 4.67 bits
3.6% →
SCIRE 4.72 bits
2.9% →
SLART 4.81 bits
2.4% →
URINE 4.39 bits

Research on FATED

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

Optimal play

Opening with FATED, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #2,304 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 FATED can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.67; proven optimal play reaches 3.66. 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
FATED sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 2 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.3 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).