SNEAK

Meaning

One who sneaks; one who moves stealthily to acquire an item or information.

“My little brother is such a sneak; yesterday I caught him trying to look through my diary.”

• verbTo creep or go stealthily; to come or go while trying to avoid detection, as a person who does not wish to be seen.
• adjectiveIn advance; before release to the general public.

SNEAK as a word-puzzle answer

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

It leans on high-frequency letters (S, N, E, A), so a strong vowel-and-common-consonant opener tends to light up quickly. Watch for the less-common letter K — saving a guess to test it once the vowels are placed is usually the fastest route.

SNEAK 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), S appears in 28% of answers (the 7th most common letter). 12 other answers share the opening “SN-”, so two green tiles up front still leave real guessing to do.

Difficulty: 3/5 — moderate, because it uses at least one genuinely rare letter.

Near misses

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

Same letters, different order: SNAKE — yellow-heavy boards can be hiding this anagram instead.

Put it to use

Words like SNEAK 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.