5 FiveLetterWords
Accepted guess Not a possible answer A tier for first-turn info

STEAN

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /stiːn/

Noun

A vessel made of clay or stone; a pot of stone or earth.

Verb

To pelt with stones; throw stones at; stone.

Verb

To fit with stones; mend, line, pave, etc. with stones.

Noun

A wall of brick, stone, or cement, used as a lining, as of a well, cistern, etc.; a steening.

Alternative forms: steen, steyn

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

Etymology

From Middle English stenen, from Old English stǣnan (“to stone, cast stones at; adorn with precious stones”), from Proto-West Germanic *stainijan, from Proto-Germanic *stainijaną (“to adorn with stones”), *stainōną (“to throw stones at”). Cognate with Old High German steinen (“to adorn with stones”), Old High German steinōn (“to throw stones”), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌽𐌾𐌰𐌽 (stainjan, “to throw stones at”).

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)

Use STEAN in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 95.9% of possible answers.

Open Solver with STEAN 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

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 STEAN performs as a guess

Wordle accepts STEAN 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 89.6% of games, misses completely in 10.4%, and leaves about 99 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #776 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.

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__A_ S in the 1st position and A 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 STEAN.

First-turn measures

All four describe STEAN 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.

5.42 Entropy (bits)
99 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
95.9% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How STEAN 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.

3.59 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#776 Rank among openers
Opening with STEAN 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 3.59 average. It ranks #776 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
79
3 guesses
983
4 guesses
1,121
5 guesses
155
6 guesses
14

Composition

5/5 unique
2 vowels
Common:
AENST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
90%
Green tile
31%
All gray
10%

Feedback distribution

STEAN can come back 118 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

247 answers
243 answers
166 answers
134 answers
113 answers
91 answers
89 answers
74 answers
72 answers
60 answers
50 answers
49 answers
48 answers
42 answers
39 answers
39 answers
38 answers
38 answers
35 answers
34 answers
30 answers
27 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
21 answers
20 answers
20 answers
20 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1T1E1A1N1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 6 points

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

Try next

COULD DOREE CAROL GLARE TROUT IRONY

Strategy after playing STEAN

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing STEAN:

10% chance
Suggested:
COULD
10% chance
Suggested:
DOREE
7% chance
Suggested:
CAROL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

10.4% →
COULD 5.67 bits
10.2% →
DOREE 5.27 bits
7.0% →
CAROL 5.08 bits
5.6% →
GLARE 4.81 bits
4.7% →
TROUT 5.10 bits
3.8% →
IRONY 4.85 bits
3.7% →
TRIED 4.54 bits
3.1% →
NOIRE 4.42 bits
3.0% →
TAROT 4.34 bits
2.5% →
SOULY 4.08 bits

Research on STEAN

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

Optimal play

Opening with STEAN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.65 guesses and ranks #1,731 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 STEAN can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.59, at or below the proven-optimal 3.65, 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.

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT).