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

SHEND

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ʃɛnd/

Verb

To disgrace or put to shame.

Verb

To blame.

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

Etymology

From Middle English shenden, from Old English sċendan (“to put to shame, blame, disgrace”), from Proto-West Germanic *skandijan (“to scold, berate”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kem- (“to cover”). Cognate with Dutch schenden (“to infringe, profane, defile”), German schänden (“defile”). Related to Old English sċand (“infamy, shame, scandal”). More at shand, shame.

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

Use SHEND in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 92.9% 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 SHEND performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SHEND 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 83.0% of games, misses completely in 17.0%, and leaves about 169 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,470 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 SHEND 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.

4.79 Entropy (bits)
169 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.9% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SHEND 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
99.92% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#3,470 Rank among openers
Opening with SHEND left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.64 average. It ranks #3,470 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
61
3 guesses
924
4 guesses
1,171
5 guesses
182
6 guesses
14

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
ENS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
83%
Green tile
32%
All gray
17%

Feedback distribution

SHEND can come back 98 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

405 answers
374 answers
118 answers
116 answers
101 answers
99 answers
96 answers
90 answers
77 answers
75 answers
72 answers
62 answers
51 answers
41 answers
38 answers
30 answers
27 answers
25 answers
25 answers
25 answers
24 answers
24 answers
21 answers
18 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1H4E1N1D2
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing SHEND

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SHEND:

17% chance
Suggested:
CAROL
16% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
5% chance
Suggested:
LAIRY

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

17.0% →
CAROL 6.01 bits
15.7% →
RAILE 5.34 bits
4.9% →
LAIRY 4.75 bits
4.9% →
TALON 4.97 bits
4.2% →
AINEE 4.63 bits
4.2% →
ROAST 5.02 bits
4.0% →
RAILE 4.75 bits
3.8% →
TORCH 4.92 bits
3.2% →
RADIO 4.77 bits
3.1% →
LAIRY 4.28 bits

Research on SHEND

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

Optimal play

Opening with SHEND, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.68 guesses and ranks #3,310 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 SHEND can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, at or below the proven-optimal 3.68, 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).