DRINK
Yes, DRINK was the Wordle answer on January 11, 2022 (Wordle #206).
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈdɹɪŋk/[ˈd͡ɹ̝ʷɪŋk] ~ [ˈd̠͡ɹ̠˔ʷɪŋk]/ˈdɹiŋk/
- Verb
-
To consume (a liquid) through the mouth.
“He drank the water I gave him.”
- Verb
-
To consume the liquid contained within (a bottle, glass, etc.).
“Jack drank the whole bottle by himself.”
- Noun
-
A beverage.
“I’d like another drink please.”
- Noun
-
Drinks in general; something to drink.
Alternative forms: dhrink, drank, drinck, drinke
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From Middle English drinken, from Old English drincan (“to drink, swallow up, engulf”), from Proto-West Germanic *drinkan, from Proto-Germanic *drinkaną (“to drink”), of uncertain origin; possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrenǵ- (“to draw into one's mouth, sip, gulp”), nasalised variant of *dʰreǵ- (“to draw, glide”).
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
One syllable Say it DRIHNGK.
Rhymes with THINK BLINK BRINK STINK TWINK
Related meanings
Synonyms drinking pledge TOAST swallow salute beverage
In a sentence
The drink is on me.
Can I have a drink?
Use DRINK in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 90.3% 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
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Used oncePast Wordle answer: January 11, 2022 (#206).
See the full page for that puzzle: January 11, 2022 (#206).
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 →DRINK in Connections
1 recorded appearance in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.
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· Puzzle #420
Reveal this appearance's category
DRINK appeared in NICKNAMES FOR THE SEA, WITH “THE” (purple group).
How DRINK performs as a guess
DRINK is a possible answer, so it would solve about one game in 2,384 when every answer is treated as equally likely.
Played as an opener, it lands at least one colored tile in 75.4% of games, misses completely in 24.6%, and leaves about 232 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #2,567 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.63 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 DRINK 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 DRINK 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 DRINK in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
DRINK can come back 94 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 DRINK; 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 DRINK
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to DRINK.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing DRINK:
Research on DRINK
Game-tree analysis and word research for DRINK, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with DRINK, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.68 guesses and ranks #3,785 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
No guaranteed hard-mode solve In hard mode, no strategy that opens with DRINK can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.63, at or below the proven-optimal 3.68, 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
- DRINK sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 79 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
- Learner level
- Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A1); among the first words English learners study.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with taste (4.7 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); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).