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

HEROS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 95.2% of possible answers.

Open Solver with HEROS Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of hero (type of sandwich)

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 HEROS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts HEROS 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 88.0% of games, misses completely in 12.0%, and leaves about 115 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #4,177 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.66 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.

H___S H in the 1st position and S in the 5th position H__O_ H in the 1st position and O in the 4th position _E__S E in the 2nd position and S in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe HEROS 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.

5.14 Entropy (bits)
115 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
95.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 90% of evaluated openers
0.80 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How HEROS 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.

3.66 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.74 Spread of game lengths
#4,177 Rank among openers
Opening with HEROS left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.74 means those games clustered within about 0.74 of a guess of the 3.66 average. It ranks #4,177 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
77
3 guesses
930
4 guesses
1,102
5 guesses
213
6 guesses
31
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:
EORS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
88%
Green tile
24%
All gray
12%

Feedback distribution

HEROS can come back 111 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

286 answers
223 answers
181 answers
146 answers
143 answers
123 answers
99 answers
83 answers
69 answers
68 answers
65 answers
54 answers
49 answers
41 answers
40 answers
39 answers
35 answers
32 answers
32 answers
30 answers
29 answers
28 answers
26 answers
23 answers
20 answers
20 answers
20 answers
17 answers
16 answers
16 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

H4E1R1O1S1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 7 points

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

Try next

PLAIT ALINE AINEE TONAL SAULT TRAIN

Strategy after playing HEROS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing HEROS:

12% chance
Suggested:
PLAIT
9% chance
Suggested:
ALINE
8% chance
Suggested:
AINEE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

12.0% →
PLAIT 5.61 bits
9.4% →
ALINE 5.53 bits
7.6% →
AINEE 4.39 bits
6.1% →
TONAL 5.05 bits
6.0% →
SAULT 5.30 bits
5.2% →
TRAIN 5.15 bits
4.2% →
STILE 4.81 bits
3.5% →
BLATE 4.55 bits
2.9% →
NOVEL 4.19 bits
2.9% →
PINCH 4.64 bits

Research on HEROS

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

Optimal play

Opening with HEROS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.67 guesses and ranks #2,629 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 HEROS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.66, 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

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

Rhymes with ZEROS

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, HEROS is a kind of someone or part.

Synonyms sub champion fighter bomber submarine WEDGE

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
HEROS 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.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.6 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).