5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess B tier for first-turn info

SHAVE

Yes, SHAVE was the Wordle answer on May 6, 2024 (Wordle #1052).

As an opener, it rules out about 93.6% of possible answers.

Open Solver with SHAVE Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈʃeɪ̯v/[ˈʃeɪ̯v]

Verb

To make (the head, skin etc.) bald or (the hair) shorter by using a tool such as a razor or electric clippers to cut the hair close to the skin.

Verb

To cut anything in this fashion.

Noun

An instance of shaving.

“I instructed the barber to give me a shave.”

Noun

A thin slice; a shaving.

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

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

Past Wordle answer

Used once

Past Wordle answer: May 6, 2024 (#1052).

See the full page for that puzzle: May 6, 2024 (#1052).

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

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How verification and withdrawal work

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How SHAVE performs as a guess

SHAVE 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 84.3% of games, misses completely in 15.7%, and leaves about 152 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #9,156 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.74 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.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

S___E S in the 1st position and E in the 5th position S__V_ S in the 1st position and V in the 4th position _H__E H in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position

Explore lists that match the beginning, ending or letters in SHAVE.

First-turn measures

All four describe SHAVE 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.

4.87 Entropy (bits)
152 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
93.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 76% of evaluated openers
1.08 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SHAVE 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.

3.74 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.74 Spread of game lengths
#9,156 Rank among openers
Opening with SHAVE left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.74 means those games clustered within about 0.74 of a guess of the 3.74 average. It ranks #9,156 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
67
3 guesses
785
4 guesses
1,210
5 guesses
260
6 guesses
29
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:
AES

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
84%
Green tile
40%
All gray
16%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L U M P
D R A N K
S H A V E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SHAVE in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

SHAVE can come back 97 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

372 answers
272 answers
250 answers
138 answers
121 answers
110 answers
89 answers
82 answers
65 answers
46 answers
41 answers
41 answers
40 answers
39 answers
35 answers
33 answers
33 answers
31 answers
30 answers
30 answers
29 answers
28 answers
24 answers
22 answers
19 answers
18 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1H4A1V4E1
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Try next

IRONY DETER TALON GOIER ALTER SNOUT

Strategy after playing SHAVE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SHAVE:

16% chance
Suggested:
IRONY
11% chance
Suggested:
DETER
11% chance
Suggested:
TALON

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

15.7% →
IRONY 5.41 bits
11.5% →
DETER 5.40 bits
10.5% →
TALON 5.24 bits
5.8% →
GOIER 4.30 bits
5.1% →
ALTER 4.58 bits
4.6% →
SNOUT 4.31 bits
3.7% →
TOUCH 4.74 bits
3.5% →
CRINE 4.05 bits
2.7% →
MOIST 4.87 bits
1.9% →
ANGLE 3.93 bits

Research on SHAVE

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

Optimal play

Opening with SHAVE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.74 guesses and ranks #7,380 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 SHAVE can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.74; proven optimal play reaches 3.74. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.

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 SHAYV.

Rhymes with BRAVE GRAVE SLAVE CRAVE WAIVE

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SHAVE is a kind of cleaning or groom.

Synonyms PLANE trim shaving

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SHAVE sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 7 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B1); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 8, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 76 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.

In a sentence

Do you want a shave?
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
I need to get a shave.
© tatoeba.org contributor megamanenm (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); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0).