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

SCEND

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

The rising motion of water as a wave passes; a surge; the upward angular displacement of a vessel, opposed to pitch, the correlative downward movement.

Verb

To heave upward.

Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.

Etymology

A corruption of send, influenced by ascend.

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

Related meanings

Synonyms SURGE

Use SCEND in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 93.4% of possible answers.

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

No completed appearance

No appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

How SCEND performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SCEND 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 84.6% of games, misses completely in 15.4%, and leaves about 158 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,237 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.64 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 SCEND 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.

4.78 Entropy (bits)
158 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
93.4% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SCEND 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.

3.64 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#3,237 Rank among openers
Opening with SCEND left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.64 average. It ranks #3,237 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
70
3 guesses
899
4 guesses
1,204
5 guesses
166
6 guesses
14

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
ENS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
85%
Green tile
30%
All gray
15%

Feedback distribution

SCEND can come back 94 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

368 answers
352 answers
153 answers
127 answers
107 answers
100 answers
96 answers
88 answers
82 answers
77 answers
75 answers
72 answers
62 answers
44 answers
39 answers
37 answers
33 answers
27 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1C3E1N1D2
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing SCEND

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SCEND:

15% chance
Suggested:
MORAL
15% chance
Suggested:
REATE
6% chance
Suggested:
CHAIR

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

15.4% →
MORAL 5.76 bits
14.8% →
REATE 5.47 bits
6.4% →
CHAIR 5.15 bits
5.3% →
LAIRY 4.67 bits
4.5% →
TRASH 4.84 bits
4.2% →
TONAL 5.18 bits
4.0% →
AINEE 4.58 bits
3.7% →
RAILE 4.73 bits
3.4% →
RADIO 4.84 bits
3.2% →
ROAST 4.77 bits

Research on SCEND

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

Optimal play

Opening with SCEND, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.66 guesses and ranks #2,404 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 SCEND can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, at or below the proven-optimal 3.66, 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0).