BACKS
BACKS is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /bæks/
- Noun
-
plural of back
- Noun
-
The backyard of the University.
- Verb
-
third-person singular simple present indicative of back
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
How it sounds
One syllable Say it BAKS.
Rhymes with RELAX PACKS LACKS SACKS HACKS
Related meanings
Synonyms game second support COVER rear STAKE
Opposites FRONT AHEAD advance veer
In a sentence
Put your backs into it.
We are always on their backs.
Use BACKS in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 88.1% of possible answers.
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
NoThe solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.
Past Wordle answer
No completed appearanceNo 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.
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See what the public sample says →How BACKS performs as a guess
Wordle accepts BACKS 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 72.4% of games, misses completely in 27.6%, and leaves about 283 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,053 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.72 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 BACKS 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 BACKS 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
Feedback distribution
BACKS can come back 77 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 BACKS; 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 BACKS
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to BACKS.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing BACKS:
Research on BACKS
Game-tree analysis and word research for BACKS, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with BACKS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.75 guesses and ranks #8,259 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.86 guesses at best and is rank #3,182 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.72, at or below the proven-optimal 3.75, 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
- Frequency
- BACKS sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 13 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (2.8 of 5).
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); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).