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

GELTS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 94.5% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of gelt

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 GELTS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts GELTS 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 85.8% of games, misses completely in 14.2%, and leaves about 130 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,824 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.

First-turn measures

All four describe GELTS 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.

4.97 Entropy (bits)
130 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
94.5% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 82% of evaluated openers
0.97 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How GELTS 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
99.92% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#2,824 Rank among openers
Opening with GELTS left 2 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 #2,824 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
69
3 guesses
917
4 guesses
1,183
5 guesses
171
6 guesses
12
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
1 vowels
Common:
ELST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
86%
Green tile
25%
All gray
14%

Feedback distribution

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

337 answers
254 answers
160 answers
138 answers
134 answers
118 answers
104 answers
88 answers
88 answers
78 answers
53 answers
52 answers
50 answers
40 answers
39 answers
34 answers
34 answers
32 answers
32 answers
29 answers
27 answers
25 answers
23 answers
23 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
16 answers
16 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

G2E1L1T1S1
Total: 6 points

Words With Friends

Total: 8 points

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

Strategy after playing GELTS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing GELTS:

14% chance
Suggested:
CAIRN
11% chance
Suggested:
IRONE
7% chance
Suggested:
CAROL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

14.2%
CAIRN 6.01 bits
10.7%
IRONE 5.08 bits
6.7%
CAROL 4.90 bits
5.8%
SNARY 4.87 bits
5.6%
TRAIT 5.26 bits
5.0%
SPAER 4.84 bits
4.4%
ALIEN 4.46 bits
3.7%
ROAST 4.58 bits
3.7%
EATER 4.67 bits
3.3%
DEARE 4.56 bits

Research on GELTS

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

Optimal play

Opening with GELTS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #2,466 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.76 guesses at best and is rank #407 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.63, at or below the proven-optimal 3.66, 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 GEHLTS. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, GELTS is a kind of money.

Synonyms SUGAR BREAD scratch DOUGH lettuce cabbage

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).