5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess C tier opener

SHIFT

Yes, SHIFT was the Wordle answer on December 9, 2023 (Wordle #903).

As an opener, it rules out about 89.3% of possible answers.

Open Solver with SHIFT Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈʃɪft/[ˈʃʰɪft]

Noun

A movement to do something, a beginning.

Noun

An act of shifting; a slight movement or change.

“There was a shift in the political atmosphere.”

Verb

To move from one place to another; to redistribute.

“We'll have to shift these boxes to the downtown office.”

Verb

To change in form or character; switch.

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: December 9, 2023 (#903).

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

Wordle Observatory

How did this puzzle feel?

About the project

Add an anonymous result and difficulty rating to the public, aggregate research dataset.

We send only this answer word for puzzle verification, the puzzle number, result, difficulty vote, Hard Mode flag, timezone and a random one-puzzle receipt token. The Observatory stores no answer word, grid, guesses, account, email, IP-derived ID or reusable player identifier. The puzzle-specific receipt prevents duplicate submissions and permits withdrawal; anyone with that token can withdraw, so keep browser-data exports private. See the privacy details.

How SHIFT performs as a guess

SHIFT is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,358 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 71.0% of games, misses completely in 29.0%, and leaves about 253 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete v5 benchmark, it ranks #3,984 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.65 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.

Useful pattern pages

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

S___T S in the 1st position and T in the 5th position S__F_ S in the 1st position and F in the 4th position _H__T H in the 2nd position and T in the 5th position

Try next

CARLE LINER PARLE TARTE CARNE ROULE
Words starting with S Words ending with T

First-turn measures

4.52 Entropy (bits)
253 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
89.3% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 53% of evaluated openers
1.43 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opener: v5 benchmark

How SHIFT 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.

3.65 Avg guesses
100.0% Win rate
0.70 Volatility
#3,984 v5 opener rank
In the complete v5 snapshot, SHIFT ranks #3,984 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
65
3 guesses
916
4 guesses
1,154
5 guesses
201
6 guesses
16
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.45 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
IST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
71%
Green tile
36%
All gray
29%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S H U N T
S H I F T

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SHIFT in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

104 possible patterns. Top outcomes:

684
178
140
136
104
93
90
89
76
54
45
44
37
31
28
28
28
27
27
25
24
24
21
20
16
14
14
14
14
12

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SHIFT:

29% chance
Suggested:
CARLE
8% chance
Suggested:
LINER
6% chance
Suggested:
PARLE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

29.0% →
CARLE 6.08 bits
7.5% →
LINER 5.19 bits
5.9% →
PARLE 5.44 bits
5.8% →
TARTE 5.40 bits
4.4% →
CARNE 4.84 bits
3.9% →
CARNE 5.15 bits
3.8% →
ROULE 5.10 bits
3.8% →
BLAER 5.02 bits
3.2% →
ALONE 5.02 bits
2.3% →
ROAKE 4.35 bits

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1H4I1F4T1
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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