STEMS
STEMS is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.
Meaning and pronunciation
- Noun
-
plural of stem
- Verb
-
third-person singular simple present indicative of stem
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
How it sounds
One syllable Say it STEHMZ.
Rhymes with MEMES
Related meanings
Synonyms base THEME root radical bow halt
In a sentence
It stems from a sense of insecurity.
His attachment to Islam stems from that.
Use STEMS in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 89.0% of possible answers.
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
NoThe solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.
Past Wordle answer
No completed appearanceNo 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.
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See what the public sample says →How STEMS performs as a guess
Wordle accepts STEMS 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 77.9% of games, misses completely in 22.1%, and leaves about 262 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #10,992 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.78 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 STEMS 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 STEMS 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
Feedback distribution
STEMS can come back 68 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 STEMS; 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 STEMS
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to STEMS.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing STEMS:
Research on STEMS
Game-tree analysis and word research for STEMS, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with STEMS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.83 guesses and ranks #11,809 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 STEMS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.78, at or below the proven-optimal 3.83, 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
- STEMS sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 7 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.6 of 5).
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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).