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

SHTIK

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

As an opener, it rules out about 89.1% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

Alternative spelling of shtick.

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 SHTIK performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SHTIK 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 71.3% of games, misses completely in 28.7%, and leaves about 258 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,384 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.68 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 SHTIK 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.

4.42 Entropy (bits)
258 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
89.1% 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 SHTIK 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.

3.68 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#5,384 Rank among openers
Opening with SHTIK solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.68 average. It ranks #5,384 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
48
3 guesses
913
4 guesses
1,161
5 guesses
218
6 guesses
14
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
1 vowels
Common:
IST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
71%
Green tile
33%
All gray
29%

Feedback distribution

SHTIK can come back 87 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

681 answers
219 answers
181 answers
124 answers
93 answers
90 answers
85 answers
67 answers
66 answers
59 answers
55 answers
49 answers
44 answers
34 answers
34 answers
33 answers
31 answers
30 answers
28 answers
23 answers
20 answers
19 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
10 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1H4T1I1K5
Total: 12 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing SHTIK

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SHTIK:

29% chance
Suggested:
DROLE
9% chance
Suggested:
DINER
8% chance
Suggested:
ALURE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

28.7%
DROLE 6.01 bits
9.2%
DINER 5.42 bits
7.6%
ALURE 5.52 bits
5.2%
PARLE 5.40 bits
3.9%
CARNE 5.15 bits
3.8%
ROULE 5.10 bits
3.6%
CRANE 4.88 bits
2.8%
TRINE 4.64 bits
2.8%
ALURE 4.52 bits
2.5%
LEARY 4.60 bits

Research on SHTIK

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

Optimal play

Opening with SHTIK, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.72 guesses and ranks #6,404 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.85 guesses at best and is rank #2,938 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.68, at or below the proven-optimal 3.72, 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 SHTIHK. Estimated pronunciation

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

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SHTIK is a kind of amount or business.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model; Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0).