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

USETA

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Contraction

used to: accustomed to

Contraction

used to: formerly did

Alternative forms: usta

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

Use USETA in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 94.8% 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 USETA performs as a guess

Wordle accepts USETA 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 90.4% of games, misses completely in 9.6%, and leaves about 123 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,131 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.

All gray? Tap a tile to cycle gray → yellow → green.

First-turn measures

All four describe USETA 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.

5.01 Entropy (bits)
123 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
94.8% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How USETA 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.

3.67 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#5,131 Rank among openers
Opening with USETA left 3 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.67 average. It ranks #5,131 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
73
3 guesses
859
4 guesses
1,206
5 guesses
192
6 guesses
21

Composition

5/5 unique
3 vowels
Common:
AESTU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
90%
Green tile
18%
All gray
10%

Feedback distribution

USETA can come back 93 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

282 answers
230 answers
229 answers
177 answers
125 answers
88 answers
83 answers
79 answers
78 answers
70 answers
67 answers
56 answers
53 answers
48 answers
47 answers
41 answers
38 answers
37 answers
36 answers
34 answers
33 answers
31 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
18 answers
16 answers
16 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

U1S1E1T1A1
Total: 5 points

Words With Friends

Total: 6 points

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

Strategy after playing USETA

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing USETA:

12% chance
Suggested:
NOIRE
10% chance
Suggested:
CAIRN
10% chance
Suggested:
CRONY

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

11.8% →
NOIRE 5.25 bits
9.6% →
CAIRN 5.35 bits
9.6% →
CRONY 5.65 bits
7.4% →
LARGE 4.82 bits
5.2% →
MULCH 4.66 bits
3.7% →
SHALY 4.44 bits
3.5% →
SPINY 4.60 bits
3.3% →
TAROT 4.42 bits
3.3% →
SNORE 4.55 bits
2.9% →
TIMER 4.73 bits

Research on USETA

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

Optimal play

Opening with USETA, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.72 guesses and ranks #6,536 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 USETA can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.67, at or below the proven-optimal 3.72, 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).