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

HEFTS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 91.4% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of heft

Verb

third-person singular simple present indicative of heft

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 HEFTS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts HEFTS 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 79.7% of games, misses completely in 20.3%, and leaves about 205 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,292 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.71 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 HEFTS 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.

4.49 Entropy (bits)
205 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
91.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 52% of evaluated openers
1.45 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How HEFTS 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.

3.71 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#7,292 Rank among openers
Opening with HEFTS solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.71 average. It ranks #7,292 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
54
3 guesses
807
4 guesses
1,280
5 guesses
199
6 guesses
14
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:
EST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
80%
Green tile
20%
All gray
20%

Feedback distribution

HEFTS can come back 89 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

481 answers
378 answers
155 answers
144 answers
119 answers
115 answers
98 answers
84 answers
72 answers
61 answers
47 answers
42 answers
41 answers
34 answers
33 answers
30 answers
27 answers
26 answers
23 answers
23 answers
21 answers
21 answers
19 answers
17 answers
16 answers
14 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

H4E1F4T1S1
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing HEFTS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing HEFTS:

20% chance
Suggested:
CAROL
16% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
7% chance
Suggested:
LAIRY

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

20.3%
CAROL 5.87 bits
15.9%
RAILE 5.29 bits
6.5%
LAIRY 5.04 bits
6.1%
TALON 5.22 bits
5.0%
PAIRE 4.94 bits
4.8%
LAIRY 4.76 bits
4.1%
TALER 4.64 bits
3.5%
ROAST 4.51 bits
3.0%
CHURN 4.66 bits
2.6%
FLORA 4.77 bits

Research on HEFTS

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

Optimal play

Opening with HEFTS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.74 guesses and ranks #7,541 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.85 guesses at best and is rank #2,983 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.71, at or below the proven-optimal 3.74, 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 HEHFTS. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, HEFTS is a kind of weight or lift.

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).