CLINK
Yes, CLINK was the Wordle answer on January 22, 2026 (Wordle #1678).
As an opener, it rules out about 89.4% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /klɪŋk/
- Noun
-
The sound of metal on metal, or glass on glass.
“You could hear the clink of the glasses from the next room.”
- Noun
-
Stress cracks produced in metal ingots as they cool after being cast.
- Verb
-
To make a clinking sound; to make a sound of metal on metal or glass on glass; to strike materials such as metal or glass against one another.
“The hammers clinked on the stone all night.”
- Verb
-
To clinch; to rivet.
Alternative forms: klink
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
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Used oncePast Wordle answer: January 22, 2026 (#1678).
See the full page for that puzzle: January 22, 2026 (#1678).
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 CLINK performs as a guess
CLINK is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,374 when every answer is treated as equally likely.
Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 72.2% of games, misses completely in 27.8%, and leaves about 251 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,944 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.65 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 CLINK 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 CLINK 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
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches CLINK in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
CLINK can come back 97 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 CLINK; 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 CLINK
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to CLINK.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing CLINK:
Research on CLINK
Game-tree analysis and word research for CLINK, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with CLINK, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #4,477 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.81 guesses at best and is rank #1,675 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, at or below the proven-optimal 3.69, 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, CLINK is a kind of sound or institution.
Synonyms CLICK jail
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- CLINK 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 (3.7 of 5).
In a sentence
When the knees sway, it is the feet that clink.
She held out the wine glass expecting someone to clink it.
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).