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

INSET

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

As an opener, it rules out about 95.3% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈɪnsɛt/

Verb

To set in; infix or implant.

Verb

To insert something.

Noun

A smaller thing set into a larger thing, such as a small picture inside a larger one.

“a map of the whole state with city maps as insets”

Noun

Anything inserted.

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 INSET performs as a guess

Wordle accepts INSET 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 86.9% of games, misses completely in 13.1%, and leaves about 111 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,325 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.61 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 INSET 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.

5.28 Entropy (bits)
111 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
95.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 94% of evaluated openers
0.67 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How INSET 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.

3.61 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#1,325 Rank among openers
Opening with INSET left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.61 average. It ranks #1,325 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
80
3 guesses
949
4 guesses
1,152
5 guesses
156
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
2 vowels
Common:
EINST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
87%
Green tile
29%
All gray
13%

Feedback distribution

INSET can come back 117 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

312 answers
235 answers
132 answers
124 answers
118 answers
116 answers
93 answers
86 answers
65 answers
64 answers
64 answers
58 answers
47 answers
39 answers
37 answers
36 answers
34 answers
31 answers
31 answers
31 answers
31 answers
31 answers
27 answers
25 answers
24 answers
21 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
17 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

I1N1S1E1T1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 6 points

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

Strategy after playing INSET

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing INSET:

13% chance
Suggested:
CAROL
10% chance
Suggested:
GLARE
6% chance
Suggested:
CLARY

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

13.1%
CAROL 5.95 bits
9.9%
GLARE 5.42 bits
5.6%
CLARY 5.02 bits
5.2%
SCALP 5.28 bits
5.0%
SOLAR 3.99 bits
4.9%
ROANY 4.97 bits
3.9%
PARSE 4.79 bits
3.6%
TOTAL 4.88 bits
2.7%
PRATE 4.70 bits
2.7%
DROLE 4.35 bits

Research on INSET

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

Optimal play

Opening with INSET, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.64 guesses and ranks #1,224 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 INSET can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.61, at or below the proven-optimal 3.64, 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 IHNSEHT.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, INSET is a kind of picture or artifact.

Synonyms insert

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
INSET 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 (2.8 of 5).

In a sentence

For more information about the map, see the inset.
© tatoeba.org contributor AlanF_US (CC BY 2.0 FR)

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).