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

SKEET

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /skiːt/

Noun

A form of trapshooting using clay targets to simulate birds in flight.

Noun

A hand consisting of a 9, a 5, a 2, and two other cards lower than 9.

Verb

To shoot or spray.

Verb

To ejaculate.

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

Etymology

Pseudo-archaic alteration of shoot, perhaps with reference to Old Norse skjóta; compare Scots skite (“to dart, to shoot”). The name for a form of trapshooting is attested from the 1920s, see quotations below. Senses related to ejaculation of semen likely derive from this, but compare also squirt, skite, or scoot.

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

One syllable Say it SKEET.

Rhymes with SWEET TREAT ELITE SHEET FLEET

Use SKEET in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 90.8% 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 SKEET performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SKEET 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 76.0% of games, misses completely in 24.0%, and leaves about 220 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,204 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.77 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 SKEET 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.

4.50 Entropy (bits)
220 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.8% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SKEET 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.

3.77 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#10,204 Rank among openers
Opening with SKEET left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.77 average. It ranks #10,204 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
40
3 guesses
777
4 guesses
1,253
5 guesses
258
6 guesses
24

Composition

4/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
EST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
39%
All gray
24%

Feedback distribution

SKEET can come back 83 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

573 answers
288 answers
162 answers
155 answers
117 answers
101 answers
90 answers
84 answers
79 answers
49 answers
46 answers
39 answers
34 answers
30 answers
29 answers
29 answers
28 answers
28 answers
26 answers
26 answers
20 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
18 answers
14 answers
14 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1K5E1E1T1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Strategy after playing SKEET

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SKEET:

24% chance
Suggested:
LAIRY
12% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
7% chance
Suggested:
TOTAL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

24.0% →
LAIRY 5.72 bits
12.1% →
RAILE 5.25 bits
6.8% →
TOTAL 5.00 bits
6.5% →
RAINY 4.49 bits
4.9% →
LAIRY 4.77 bits
4.2% →
LAIRY 4.38 bits
3.8% →
CRASS 4.75 bits
3.5% →
TARTE 4.69 bits
3.3% →
CLARY 5.07 bits
2.1% →
ROULE 4.25 bits

Research on SKEET

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

Optimal play

Opening with SKEET, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses and ranks #8,607 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 SKEET can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.77; proven optimal play reaches 3.76. 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SKEET sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.0 of 5).

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).