STEAM

Meaning

The vapor formed when water changes from liquid phase to gas phase.

• verbTo cook with steam.
• adjectiveOld-fashioned; from before the digital age.

STEAM as a word-puzzle answer

STEAM is a 5-letter word with 2 vowels (E, A) and 3 consonants (S, T, M). Every letter is distinct, so it rarely punishes a clean opening guess.

It leans on high-frequency letters (S, T, E, A), so a strong vowel-and-common-consonant opener tends to light up quickly. There are no rare letters here, so it is a fair, mid-difficulty answer for the daily Classic puzzle.

STEAM by the numbers

Across the 1,734 curated answers in the Wordocious bank, E appears in 50% of answers (the 1st most common letter), A appears in 40% of answers (the 2nd most common letter), T appears in 30% of answers (the 4th most common letter). 59 other answers share the opening “ST-”, so two green tiles up front still leave real guessing to do.

Difficulty: 2/5 — approachable, because its letters are common and no close neighbors compete with it.

Near misses

One letter away in the answer bank: STEAK, STEAL, STEAD. Each of these turns four tiles green against STEAM — the classic endgame squeeze where spending a guess on the differing letter beats burning attempts on hope.

Put it to use

Words like STEAM are exactly what the daily puzzles throw at you. Warm up in Practice, race the clock in the Daily Challenge, or study the best starting words before your next run. New to the multi-board modes? The mode guides cover all nine.