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

STEAK

Yes, STEAK was the Wordle answer on July 14, 2026 (Wordle #1851).

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /steɪk//stɛːk/

Noun

Beefsteak: a slice of beef, broiled or cut for broiling.

Noun

A relatively large, thick slice or slab cut from another animal, a vegetable, etc.

Verb

To cook (something, especially fish) like or as a steak.

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

Etymology

From Middle English steike, from Old Norse steik (“roast; meat roasted on a stick”). The verb is either from the noun or from steikja (“to roast”).

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

How it sounds

One syllable Say it STAYK.

Rhymes with BREAK SHAKE SNAKE STAKE AWAKE

In a sentence

That was a good steak.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)
The steak was very good.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Use STEAK in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 94.0% of possible answers.

Open Solver with STEAK Open Word Finder

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: July 14, 2026 (#1851).

See the full page for that puzzle: July 14, 2026 (#1851).

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

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STEAK in Connections

2 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.

How STEAK performs as a guess

STEAK is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,384 when every answer is treated as equally likely.

Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 86.8% of games, misses completely in 13.2%, and leaves about 144 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,250 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.67 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___K S in the 1st position and K in the 5th position S__A_ S in the 1st position and A in the 4th position _T__K T in the 2nd position and K in the 5th position ST_AK S in the 1st position, T in the 2nd position, A in the 4th position, and K in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe STEAK 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.

4.94 Entropy (bits)
144 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
94.0% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How STEAK 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.

3.67 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#5,250 Rank among openers
Opening with STEAK 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 3.67 average. It ranks #5,250 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
62
3 guesses
861
4 guesses
1,222
5 guesses
191
6 guesses
15

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AEST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
87%
Green tile
29%
All gray
13%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S P L A T
A D M I N
S T E A K

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches STEAK in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

STEAK can come back 98 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

329 answers
314 answers
206 answers
152 answers
147 answers
103 answers
94 answers
66 answers
53 answers
51 answers
50 answers
47 answers
43 answers
43 answers
41 answers
38 answers
30 answers
29 answers
24 answers
24 answers
23 answers
23 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1T1E1A1K5
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 9 points

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

Try next

RIONE COULD CAIRN GLARE TROUT TRIED

Strategy after playing STEAK

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing STEAK:

14% chance
Suggested:
RIONE
13% chance
Suggested:
COULD
9% chance
Suggested:
CAIRN

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

13.8% →
RIONE 5.29 bits
13.2% →
COULD 5.51 bits
8.6% →
CAIRN 5.14 bits
6.4% →
GLARE 4.81 bits
6.2% →
TROUT 5.10 bits
4.3% →
TRIED 4.60 bits
3.9% →
TAROT 4.37 bits
2.8% →
SPOIL 4.16 bits
2.2% →
CORAL 4.34 bits
2.1% →
CARLE 4.37 bits

Research on STEAK

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

Optimal play

Opening with STEAK, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.72 guesses and ranks #6,215 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.84 guesses at best and is rank #2,473 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.67, 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.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
STEAK sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 9 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.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 8, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 93 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with taste (4.8 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); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).