BALKS
BALKS is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.
As an opener, it rules out about 89.8% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
- Verb
-
third-person singular simple present indicative of balk
- Noun
-
plural of balk
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
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
Not used yetNo past answer date found.
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
Wordle Observatory · optional
Played this Wordle?
Add your result to the public totals · about 20 seconds
Wordle Observatory · optional
Played this Wordle?
Add your result to the public totals · about 20 seconds
Add your result and a quick difficulty rating to help explain how this puzzle played.
See the public dataThank you. Your result now helps describe this puzzle.
See what the public sample says →How BALKS performs as a guess
Wordle accepts BALKS 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 74.3% of games, misses completely in 25.7%, and leaves about 243 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,259 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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 BALKS 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 BALKS 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
BALKS can come back 87 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 BALKS; 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 BALKS
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to BALKS.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing BALKS:
Research on BALKS
Game-tree analysis and word research for BALKS, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with BALKS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,871 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.82 guesses at best and is rank #2,076 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, at or below the proven-optimal 3.71, 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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, BALKS is a kind of area or difficulty.
Synonyms CHECK resist handicap deterrent impediment hindrance
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- BALKS sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sound (2.8 of 5).
In a sentence
Iran balks at release of American woman.
The mind balks in contemplation of the monuments of Egypt.
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).