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

SHEAS

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

As an opener, it rules out about 91.4% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of shea

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 SHEAS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SHEAS 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 83.7% of games, misses completely in 16.3%, and leaves about 204 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #11,933 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.81 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 SHEAS 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.

4.41 Entropy (bits)
204 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
91.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 46% of evaluated openers
1.53 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SHEAS 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.

3.81 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.74 Spread of game lengths
#11,933 Rank among openers
Opening with SHEAS 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 3.81 average. It ranks #11,933 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
52
3 guesses
720
4 guesses
1,234
5 guesses
318
6 guesses
28
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

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AES

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
84%
Green tile
30%
All gray
16%

Feedback distribution

SHEAS can come back 81 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

403 answers
387 answers
289 answers
195 answers
109 answers
90 answers
71 answers
63 answers
56 answers
55 answers
47 answers
46 answers
35 answers
35 answers
33 answers
31 answers
31 answers
30 answers
29 answers
24 answers
24 answers
22 answers
18 answers
16 answers
15 answers
14 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1H4E1A1S1
Total: 8 points

Words With Friends

Total: 7 points

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

Strategy after playing SHEAS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SHEAS:

17% chance
Suggested:
RIONE
16% chance
Suggested:
DROIT
12% chance
Suggested:
TALON

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.0%
RIONE 5.20 bits
16.3%
DROIT 5.56 bits
12.2%
TALON 5.09 bits
8.2%
LARGE 4.71 bits
4.6%
SNOUT 4.32 bits
3.8%
TOUCH 4.75 bits
3.0%
CORAL 4.46 bits
2.7%
CREED 4.32 bits
2.4%
PLIER 4.12 bits
2.3%
SLANT 4.10 bits

Research on SHEAS

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

Optimal play

Opening with SHEAS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.83 guesses and ranks #11,972 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 SHEAS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.81, at or below the proven-optimal 3.83, 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

One syllable Say it SHEEZ. Estimated pronunciation

This pronunciation is machine-estimated, not taken from a pronunciation dictionary.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model.