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

STAIR

Yes, STAIR was the Wordle answer on April 9, 2022 (Wordle #294).

As an opener, it rules out about 96.2% of possible answers.

Open Solver with STAIR Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /stɛɚ//stɛə//stɛː/

Noun

A single step in a staircase.

Noun

A series of steps; a staircase.

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: April 9, 2022 (#294).

See the full page for that puzzle: April 9, 2022 (#294).

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

Wordle Observatory · optional

Played this Wordle?

Add your result to the public totals · about 20 seconds

Add your result and a quick difficulty rating to help explain how this puzzle played.

See the public data

The Observatory retains the selected puzzle, result, rating, optional Hard Mode answer and a random one-puzzle receipt. It stores no answer word, grid, guesses, account, email, IP-derived ID or reusable player identifier.

How verification and withdrawal work

The answer word and timezone are used transiently to verify this page, then discarded. The receipt prevents duplicate submissions and lets this browser withdraw later; anyone with that token can withdraw, so keep browser-data exports private. Read the full privacy details.

How STAIR performs as a guess

STAIR 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 88.6% of games, misses completely in 11.4%, and leaves about 90 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #134 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.56 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___R S in the 1st position and R in the 5th position S__I_ S in the 1st position and I in the 4th position _T__R T in the 2nd position and R in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe STAIR 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.

5.53 Entropy (bits)
90 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
96.2% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 99% of evaluated openers
0.42 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How STAIR 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.

3.56 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#134 Rank among openers
Opening with STAIR 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 3.56 average. It ranks #134 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
79
3 guesses
1,050
4 guesses
1,062
5 guesses
146
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
2 vowels
Common:
AIRST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
89%
Green tile
39%
All gray
11%

Example solver route

R O A T E
G R I S T
S T A I R

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches STAIR in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

STAIR can come back 127 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

270 answers
178 answers
144 answers
136 answers
88 answers
87 answers
78 answers
70 answers
69 answers
67 answers
61 answers
59 answers
56 answers
53 answers
50 answers
43 answers
42 answers
38 answers
37 answers
30 answers
30 answers
27 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
22 answers
22 answers
22 answers
21 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1T1A1I1R1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 5 points

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

Try next

CLONE CONEY CLINE TOUCH LITHE COLEY

Strategy after playing STAIR

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing STAIR:

11% chance
Suggested:
CLONE
7% chance
Suggested:
CLONE
6% chance
Suggested:
CONEY

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

11.4% →
CLONE 5.90 bits
7.5% →
CLONE 5.27 bits
6.1% →
CONEY 4.97 bits
5.7% →
CLINE 5.15 bits
3.7% →
TOUCH 4.89 bits
3.7% →
CLONE 4.45 bits
3.3% →
CLONE 4.43 bits
2.9% →
CLONE 4.69 bits
2.9% →
LITHE 4.27 bits
2.8% →
COLEY 3.86 bits

Research on STAIR

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

Optimal play

Opening with STAIR, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.62 guesses and ranks #488 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 STAIR can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.56, at or below the proven-optimal 3.62, 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 STEHR.

Rhymes with THEIR THERE WHERE SHARE AWARE

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, STAIR is a kind of support.

Synonyms step

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
STAIR sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 2 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Learner level
Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A2); among the first words English learners study.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.8 of 5).

In a sentence

Tom missed a stair and fell.
© tatoeba.org contributor mraz (CC BY 2.0 FR)
I'll buy her a stair gate.
© tatoeba.org contributor always (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; Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).