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

ZESTS

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

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of zest

Verb

third-person singular simple present indicative of zest

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

Related meanings

Synonyms SPICE tang nip relish GUSTO

Use ZESTS in a puzzle

As an opener, it rules out about 86.7% 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 ZESTS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts ZESTS 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 73.2% of games, misses completely in 26.8%, and leaves about 317 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #14,012 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.90 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 ZESTS 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.

3.64 Entropy (bits)
317 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
86.7% Avg ruled out

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How ZESTS 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.

3.90 Avg guesses
99.79% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#14,012 Rank among openers
Opening with ZESTS left 5 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 3.90 average. It ranks #14,012 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
28
3 guesses
571
4 guesses
1,383
5 guesses
338
6 guesses
29

Composition

4/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
EST

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
73%
Green tile
20%
All gray
27%

Feedback distribution

ZESTS can come back 51 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

638 answers
443 answers
209 answers
178 answers
153 answers
137 answers
124 answers
101 answers
57 answers
43 answers
41 answers
30 answers
22 answers
20 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
9 answers
9 answers
9 answers
9 answers
6 answers
6 answers
4 answers
3 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

Z10E1S1T1S1
Total: 14 points

Words With Friends

Total: 14 points

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

Strategy after playing ZESTS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing ZESTS:

27% chance
Suggested:
CAROL
19% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
9% chance
Suggested:
TAROT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

26.8% →
CAROL 5.92 bits
18.6% →
RAILE 5.30 bits
8.8% →
TAROT 5.12 bits
7.5% →
SNARL 4.93 bits
6.4% →
CARLE 4.60 bits
5.7% →
PAIRE 4.78 bits
5.2% →
TALER 4.74 bits
4.2% →
ROAST 4.52 bits
2.4% →
ROANY 4.39 bits
1.8% →
SLART 4.00 bits

Research on ZESTS

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

Optimal play

Opening with ZESTS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.93 guesses and ranks #14,218 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 ZESTS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.90, at or below the proven-optimal 3.93, 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

Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.6 of 5).

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).