STEAL
STEAL is on the solver's possible-answer list but has not appeared as a Wordle answer yet.
As an opener, it rules out about 96.0% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /stiːl/
- Verb
-
To take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else without intending to return it.
“Three irreplaceable paintings were stolen from the gallery.”
- Verb
-
To appropriate without giving credit or acknowledgement.
“They stole my idea for a biodegradable, disposable garbage de-odorizer.”
- Noun
-
The act of stealing.
- Noun
-
A piece of merchandise available at a very low, attractive price; the act of buying it.
“At this price, this car is a steal.”
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
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Not used yetNo past answer date found.
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →How STEAL performs as a guess
STEAL 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 90.4% of games, misses completely in 9.6%, and leaves about 96 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #787 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.59 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe STEAL 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How STEAL 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches STEAL in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
STEAL can come back 126 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for STEAL; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing STEAL
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to STEAL.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing STEAL:
Research on STEAL
Game-tree analysis and word research for STEAL, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with STEAL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.64 guesses and ranks #1,177 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.75 guesses at best and is rank #267 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.59, at or below the proven-optimal 3.64, 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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, STEAL is a kind of purchase or ball.
Synonyms buy slip rip bargain
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- STEAL sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 26 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
- 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 6, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
- Imageability
- Imageability score: 59 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.3 of 5).
In a sentence
I don't steal it from you.
I can't steal for you.
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).