SHAFT
Yes, SHAFT was the Wordle answer on July 20, 2024 (Wordle #1127).
As an opener, it rules out about 91.2% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈʃɑːft//ˈʃɐːft/[ˈʃɐ̞ːft]
- Noun
-
The long, narrow, central body of a spear, arrow, or javelin.
“Her hand slipped off the javelin's shaft towards the spearpoint and that's why her score was lowered.”
- Noun
-
Anything cast or thrown as a spear or javelin.
- Verb
-
To fuck over; to cause harm to, especially through deceit or treachery.
“Your boss really shafted you by stealing your idea like that.”
- Verb
-
To equip with a shaft.
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
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Used oncePast Wordle answer: July 20, 2024 (#1127).
See the full page for that puzzle: July 20, 2024 (#1127).
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →How SHAFT performs as a guess
SHAFT is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,374 when every answer is treated as equally likely.
Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 76.4% of games, misses completely in 23.6%, and leaves about 208 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,939 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.62 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe SHAFT 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How SHAFT 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches SHAFT in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
SHAFT can come back 108 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for SHAFT; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing SHAFT
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to SHAFT.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing SHAFT:
Research on SHAFT
Game-tree analysis and word research for SHAFT, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with SHAFT, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #4,412 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.82 guesses at best and is rank #1,825 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.62, at or below the proven-optimal 3.69, 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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, SHAFT is a kind of line or comment.
Synonyms shot dick ray tool SCREW cock
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- SHAFT sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 8 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
- Age of acquisition
- Typically learned around age 10, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 69 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.7 of 5).
In a sentence
In the shaft, people mine.
But instead, he got the shaft.
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); Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).