THIEF
Yes, THIEF was the Wordle answer on April 14, 2023 (Wordle #664).
As an opener, it rules out about 92.7% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈθiːf/[ˈθɪi̯f]
- Noun
-
One who carries out a theft.
- Noun
-
One who steals another person's property, especially by stealth and without using force or violence.
Alternative forms: theef
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
Used oncePast Wordle answer: April 14, 2023 (#664).
See the full page for that puzzle: April 14, 2023 (#664).
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 THIEF performs as a guess
THIEF 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 81.8% of games, misses completely in 18.2%, and leaves about 172 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,028 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.67 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 THIEF 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 THIEF 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 THIEF in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
THIEF can come back 103 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 THIEF; 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 THIEF
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to THIEF.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing THIEF:
Research on THIEF
Game-tree analysis and word research for THIEF, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with THIEF, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #5,213 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 THIEF can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.67, at or below the proven-optimal 3.70, 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, THIEF is a kind of criminal.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- THIEF 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 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: 62 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.6 of 5).
In a sentence
The thief is in the house.
Did you see the thief?
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).