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

STERN

Yes, STERN was the Wordle answer on September 4, 2024 (Wordle #1173).

As an opener, it rules out about 95.8% of possible answers.

Open Solver with STERN Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /stɜːn//stɝn/

Adjective

Having a hardness and severity of nature or manner.

Adjective

Grim and forbidding in appearance.

“The remark earned me a stern rebuke.”

Noun

The rear part (after end) of a ship or other vessel.

Noun

The post of management or direction.

Alternative forms: sterne

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: September 4, 2024 (#1173).

See the full page for that puzzle: September 4, 2024 (#1173).

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

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How STERN performs as a guess

STERN 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 88.8% of games, misses completely in 11.2%, and leaves about 101 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #1,389 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.61 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__R_ S in the 1st position and R 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 STERN.

First-turn measures

All four describe STERN 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.

5.36 Entropy (bits)
101 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
95.8% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 96% of evaluated openers
0.58 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How STERN 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.

3.61 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#1,389 Rank among openers
Opening with STERN left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.61 average. It ranks #1,389 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
83
3 guesses
973
4 guesses
1,096
5 guesses
176
6 guesses
22
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
1 vowels
Common:
ENRST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
89%
Green tile
30%
All gray
11%

Example solver route

R O A T E
E N T E R
S T E R N

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches STERN in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

STERN can come back 120 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

265 answers
191 answers
183 answers
143 answers
129 answers
114 answers
83 answers
80 answers
69 answers
63 answers
59 answers
53 answers
52 answers
43 answers
37 answers
34 answers
33 answers
31 answers
29 answers
29 answers
28 answers
27 answers
25 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
22 answers
22 answers
22 answers
21 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1T1E1R1N1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 6 points

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

Try next

COALY BAILE LAIDE CAROL TOTAL AINEE

Strategy after playing STERN

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing STERN:

11% chance
Suggested:
COALY
8% chance
Suggested:
BAILE
8% chance
Suggested:
LAIDE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

11.2% →
COALY 5.67 bits
8.0% →
BAILE 5.33 bits
7.7% →
LAIDE 4.34 bits
6.0% →
CAROL 5.39 bits
5.4% →
TOTAL 4.87 bits
4.8% →
COALY 4.91 bits
3.5% →
LAIDE 4.57 bits
3.4% →
COALY 4.83 bits
2.9% →
AINEE 4.35 bits
2.7% →
AMISS 4.72 bits

Research on STERN

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

Optimal play

Opening with STERN, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.64 guesses and ranks #1,106 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 #366 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.61, 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.

How it sounds

One syllable Say it STURN.

Rhymes with LEARN CHURN YEARN SPURN

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, STERN is a kind of back or part.

Synonyms can behind ass bottom seat quarter

Opposites FANCY indulgent

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
STERN sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 8 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 10, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 59 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.

In a sentence

He had his stern face on.
© tatoeba.org contributor megamanenm (CC BY 2.0 FR)
He gave me a stern look.
© tatoeba.org contributor CM (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; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0).