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

HETHS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 89.3% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of heth

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 HETHS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts HETHS 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 76.9% of games, misses completely in 23.1%, and leaves about 253 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,178 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.82 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 HETHS 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.

4.08 Entropy (bits)
253 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
89.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 26% of evaluated openers
1.87 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How HETHS 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.

3.82 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#12,178 Rank among openers
Opening with HETHS left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.82 average. It ranks #12,178 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
46
3 guesses
673
4 guesses
1,329
5 guesses
279
6 guesses
26
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

4/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
EST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
77%
Green tile
19%
All gray
23%

Feedback distribution

HETHS can come back 68 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

548 answers
420 answers
165 answers
160 answers
131 answers
121 answers
101 answers
100 answers
70 answers
54 answers
44 answers
41 answers
39 answers
30 answers
30 answers
28 answers
26 answers
24 answers
22 answers
21 answers
17 answers
17 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
10 answers
9 answers
6 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

H4E1T1H4S1
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing HETHS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing HETHS:

23% chance
Suggested:
CAROL
18% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
7% chance
Suggested:
LAIRY

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

23.1%
CAROL 5.83 bits
17.7%
RAILE 5.31 bits
7.0%
LAIRY 5.00 bits
6.7%
TALON 5.06 bits
5.5%
LEARE 4.60 bits
5.1%
PAIRE 4.95 bits
4.3%
ARENE 4.73 bits
4.2%
SAINT 4.44 bits
2.9%
CHURN 4.66 bits
2.3%
STEAL 3.94 bits

Research on HETHS

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

Optimal play

Opening with HETHS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.84 guesses and ranks #12,456 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 HETHS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.82, at or below the proven-optimal 3.84, 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 HEHTHS. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, HETHS is a kind of letter.

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).