5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess B tier for first-turn info

STAIN

Yes, STAIN was the Wordle answer on October 12, 2024 (Wordle #1211).

As an opener, it rules out about 95.1% of possible answers.

Open Solver with STAIN Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /steɪn/

Noun

A discolored spot or area caused by spillage or other contact with certain fluids or substances.

Noun

A blemish on one's character or reputation.

Verb

To discolor, as by spilling or other contact with a fluid or substance.

“to stain the hand with dye”

Verb

To taint or tarnish someone's character or reputation

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: October 12, 2024 (#1211).

See the full page for that puzzle: October 12, 2024 (#1211).

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

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How STAIN performs as a guess

STAIN is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,374 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 85.2% of games, misses completely in 14.8%, and leaves about 116 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #246 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.57 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.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

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

S___N S in the 1st position and N in the 5th position S__I_ S in the 1st position and I in the 4th position _T__N T in the 2nd position and N in the 5th position

Explore lists that match the beginning, ending or letters in STAIN.

First-turn measures

All four describe STAIN 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.

5.29 Entropy (bits)
116 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
95.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 95% of evaluated openers
0.66 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How STAIN 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.

3.57 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#246 Rank among openers
Opening with STAIN 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 3.57 average. It ranks #246 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
73
3 guesses
1,046
4 guesses
1,063
5 guesses
153
6 guesses
16
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.46 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AINST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
85%
Green tile
35%
All gray
15%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I N K
S T A I N

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches STAIN in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

STAIN can come back 120 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

351 answers
217 answers
141 answers
128 answers
98 answers
97 answers
97 answers
77 answers
69 answers
68 answers
66 answers
52 answers
39 answers
37 answers
35 answers
35 answers
33 answers
32 answers
31 answers
29 answers
28 answers
26 answers
25 answers
25 answers
25 answers
23 answers
23 answers
22 answers
20 answers
19 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1T1A1I1N1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 6 points

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

Try next

DROLE CARLE TROUT COURE PLORE TITHE

Strategy after playing STAIN

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing STAIN:

15% chance
Suggested:
DROLE
9% chance
Suggested:
CARLE
6% chance
Suggested:
DROLE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

14.8% →
DROLE 5.96 bits
9.1% →
CARLE 5.39 bits
5.9% →
DROLE 5.28 bits
5.4% →
TROUT 5.25 bits
4.1% →
COURE 5.02 bits
4.1% →
DROLE 4.76 bits
4.1% →
CARLE 4.73 bits
3.2% →
PLORE 4.88 bits
2.9% →
TITHE 4.30 bits
2.9% →
HORSE 4.83 bits

Research on STAIN

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

Optimal play

Opening with STAIN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.63 guesses and ranks #995 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.76 guesses at best and is rank #489 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.57, at or below the proven-optimal 3.63, 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 STAYN.

Rhymes with TRAIN BRAIN PLANE CHAIN SPAIN

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, STAIN is a kind of appearance or color.

Synonyms mark spot BRAND soil dirt dye

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
STAIN sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 5 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 7, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 83 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.7 of 5).

In a sentence

What kind of stain is that?
© tatoeba.org contributor AlanF_US (CC BY 2.0 FR)
What kind of stain is it?
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).