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

LITEM

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

No dictionary definition for LITEM is recorded in our sourced data.

As an opener, it rules out about 94.8% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

We do not have a sourced definition for this word yet.

Check LITEM on Wiktionary or report a missing entry.

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 LITEM performs as a guess

Wordle accepts LITEM 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 124 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,783 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 LITEM 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.

5.10 Entropy (bits)
124 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
94.8% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 88% of evaluated openers
0.84 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How LITEM 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
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#2,783 Rank among openers
Opening with LITEM left 2 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 3.63 average. It ranks #2,783 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
79
3 guesses
917
4 guesses
1,158
5 guesses
183
6 guesses
15
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:
EILT

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
87%
Green tile
28%
All gray
13%

Feedback distribution

LITEM can come back 114 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

312 answers
256 answers
164 answers
158 answers
114 answers
110 answers
106 answers
93 answers
78 answers
65 answers
62 answers
60 answers
46 answers
40 answers
35 answers
33 answers
29 answers
28 answers
28 answers
27 answers
27 answers
25 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
17 answers
17 answers
16 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

L1I1T1E1M3
Total: 7 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing LITEM

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing LITEM:

13% chance
Suggested:
SCORN
11% chance
Suggested:
SOARE
7% chance
Suggested:
SONAR

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

13.1%
SCORN 5.71 bits
10.8%
SOARE 5.36 bits
6.9%
SONAR 4.99 bits
6.7%
ROAST 5.47 bits
4.8%
SONAR 4.54 bits
4.6%
CAIRN 5.13 bits
4.5%
SHART 5.18 bits
3.9%
CEASE 4.45 bits
3.3%
COMMA 4.89 bits
2.7%
SAINT 4.60 bits

Research on LITEM

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

Optimal play

Opening with LITEM, 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 LITEM can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.63, 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 LYTEHM.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
LITEM sits in the rare band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word few players will have met in print.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).