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

FEINT

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

As an opener, it rules out about 93.5% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /feɪnt/

Noun

A movement made to confuse an opponent; a dummy.

Noun

A blow, thrust, or other offensive movement resembling an attack on some part of the body, intended to distract from a real attack on another part.

Verb

To direct (a blow, thrust, or other offensive movement resembling an attack) on some part of the body, intended to distract from a real attack on another part.

Verb

To make a feint or mock attack.

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 FEINT performs as a guess

Wordle accepts FEINT 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 82.8% of games, misses completely in 17.2%, and leaves about 155 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,660 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.65 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 FEINT 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.

5.01 Entropy (bits)
155 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
93.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 84% of evaluated openers
0.94 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FEINT 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.

3.65 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#3,660 Rank among openers
Opening with FEINT left 2 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 3.65 average. It ranks #3,660 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
79
3 guesses
912
4 guesses
1,136
5 guesses
208
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

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
EINT

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
83%
Green tile
37%
All gray
17%

Feedback distribution

FEINT can come back 120 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

408 answers
329 answers
123 answers
109 answers
105 answers
99 answers
94 answers
74 answers
61 answers
58 answers
52 answers
51 answers
46 answers
46 answers
45 answers
42 answers
33 answers
31 answers
30 answers
29 answers
28 answers
27 answers
22 answers
20 answers
19 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4E1I1N1T1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing FEINT

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FEINT:

17% chance
Suggested:
SOLAR
14% chance
Suggested:
SOLAR
5% chance
Suggested:
SORAL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.2%
SOLAR 5.84 bits
13.9%
SOLAR 5.49 bits
5.2%
SORAL 5.18 bits
4.6%
SADLY 4.85 bits
4.4%
CARLE 4.68 bits
4.2%
TARSE 4.78 bits
4.0%
SALON 5.01 bits
3.1%
LAREE 4.62 bits
2.6%
CLARY 4.56 bits
2.4%
SORAL 4.89 bits

Research on FEINT

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

Optimal play

Opening with FEINT, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.67 guesses and ranks #2,757 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 FEINT can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, 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

One syllable Say it FAYNT.

Rhymes with PAINT SAINT FAINT TAINT

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, FEINT is a kind of maneuver or assume.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
FEINT 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.

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).