Accepted guess Not a possible answer F tier for first-turn info

STYMY

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

Alternative spelling of stymie.

Verb

Alternative spelling of stymie.

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

Related meanings

Synonyms BLOCK blockade embarrass hinder obstruct

Use STYMY in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 83.4% of possible answers.

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 STYMY performs as a guess

Wordle accepts STYMY 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 65.4% of games, misses completely in 34.6%, and leaves about 396 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,799 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.84 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.

First-turn measures

All four describe STYMY 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.

3.50 Entropy (bits)
396 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
83.4% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How STYMY 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.

3.84 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#12,799 Rank among openers
Opening with STYMY left 1 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 3.84 average. It ranks #12,799 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
31
3 guesses
666
4 guesses
1,339
5 guesses
294
6 guesses
23

Composition

4/5 unique
0 vowels
Common:
ST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
65%
Green tile
33%
All gray
35%

Feedback distribution

STYMY can come back 53 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

825 answers
372 answers
194 answers
190 answers
131 answers
123 answers
64 answers
56 answers
49 answers
47 answers
39 answers
32 answers
32 answers
24 answers
24 answers
21 answers
17 answers
17 answers
15 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
8 answers
5 answers
5 answers
5 answers
5 answers
4 answers
4 answers
4 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1T1Y4M3Y4
Total: 13 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing STYMY

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing STYMY:

35% chance
Suggested:
ARIEL
16% chance
Suggested:
ARIEL
8% chance
Suggested:
DROLE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

34.6% →
ARIEL 6.14 bits
15.6% →
ARIEL 5.58 bits
8.1% →
DROLE 4.86 bits
8.0% →
PLANE 5.29 bits
5.5% →
ALURE 5.14 bits
5.2% →
MORAE 5.45 bits
2.7% →
AROSE 4.68 bits
2.3% →
RAIKE 4.35 bits
2.1% →
TARTE 4.05 bits
2.0% →
PHARE 4.23 bits

Research on STYMY

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

Optimal play

Opening with STYMY, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.89 guesses and ranks #13,747 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 STYMY can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.84, at or below the proven-optimal 3.89, 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); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0).