5 FiveLetterWords
Accepted guess Not a possible answer F tier for first-turn info

DUSKS

DUSKS is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.

As an opener, it rules out about 78.0% of possible answers.

Open Solver with DUSKS Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

plural of dusk

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

Yes

Included in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.

Possible answer

No

The solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.

Past Wordle answer

Not used yet

No past answer date found.

The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.

How DUSKS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts DUSKS 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 57.0% of games, misses completely in 43.0%, and leaves about 521 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,585 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.87 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.

All gray? Tap a tile to cycle gray → yellow → green.
See strategy patterns

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

D___S D in the 1st position and S in the 5th position D__K_ D in the 1st position and K in the 4th position _U__S U in the 2nd position and S in the 5th position

Explore lists that match the beginning, ending or letters in DUSKS.

First-turn measures

All four describe DUSKS 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.

3.25 Entropy (bits)
521 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
78.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 3% of evaluated openers
2.69 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How DUSKS 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.

3.87 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#13,585 Rank among openers
Opening with DUSKS left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.71 means those games clustered within about 0.71 of a guess of the 3.87 average. It ranks #13,585 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
29
3 guesses
648
4 guesses
1,294
5 guesses
358
6 guesses
24
Top-ranked in the current bounded policy screen: SLANT. The policy minimizes misses within six first, then average guesses among wins (3.46 for the leader). Compare the ranking measures

Composition

4/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
SU

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
57%
Green tile
18%
All gray
43%

Feedback distribution

DUSKS can come back 53 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

1021 answers
324 answers
182 answers
139 answers
110 answers
84 answers
82 answers
60 answers
44 answers
42 answers
28 answers
28 answers
27 answers
21 answers
19 answers
17 answers
12 answers
12 answers
10 answers
10 answers
10 answers
9 answers
9 answers
9 answers
8 answers
7 answers
4 answers
4 answers
4 answers
3 answers

Letter-value totals

Base letter-value totals for DUSKS; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.

Scrabble

D2U1S1K5S1
Total: 10 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.

Try next

ROATE ARIEL TRONE CARLE STARE TRINE

Strategy after playing DUSKS

What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to DUSKS.

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing DUSKS:

43% chance
Suggested:
ROATE
14% chance
Suggested:
ROATE
8% chance
Suggested:
ARIEL

Follow-ups for common patterns

Ranked follow-up guesses for the 10 most common feedback patterns.

43.0% →
ROATE 6.06 bits
13.6% →
ROATE 5.55 bits
7.7% →
ARIEL 5.66 bits
5.9% →
TRONE 5.44 bits
4.6% →
CARLE 4.39 bits
3.5% →
ARIEL 5.18 bits
3.5% →
CARLE 5.20 bits
2.5% →
STARE 4.32 bits
1.9% →
TRINE 4.29 bits
1.8% →
TRICE 3.99 bits

Research on DUSKS

Game-tree analysis and word research for DUSKS, with an explanation for each figure.

Optimal play

Opening with DUSKS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.89 guesses and ranks #13,608 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 DUSKS can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.87, at or below the proven-optimal 3.89, 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.

How it sounds

One syllable Say it DUHSKS. Estimated pronunciation

This pronunciation is machine-estimated, not taken from a pronunciation dictionary.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, DUSKS is a kind of hour or change.

Synonyms fall twilight nightfall

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
DUSKS sits in the rare band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word few players will have met in print.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.7 of 5).

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model; 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).