Possible answer Not used yet C tier for first-turn info

FLACK

FLACK is on the solver's possible-answer list but has not appeared as a Wordle answer yet.

As an opener, it rules out about 87.4% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /flæk/

Noun

A publicist, a publicity agent.

Verb

To publicise, to promote.

Noun

Alternative spelling of flak.

Verb

To flutter; palpitate.

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

Yes

Included among the answers considered by the solver.

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 FLACK performs as a guess

FLACK 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 69.8% of games, misses completely in 30.2%, and leaves about 299 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,957 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.

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

First-turn measures

All four describe FLACK 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.

4.20 Entropy (bits)
299 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
87.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 32% of evaluated openers
1.75 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How FLACK 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.

3.72 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#7,957 Rank among openers
Opening with FLACK solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.72 average. It ranks #7,957 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
56
3 guesses
807
4 guesses
1,236
5 guesses
245
6 guesses
9
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

5/5 unique
1 vowels
Common:
AL

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
70%
Green tile
29%
All gray
30%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I C K
B E E F Y
F L A C K

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches FLACK in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

FLACK can come back 94 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

718 answers
297 answers
192 answers
127 answers
127 answers
113 answers
65 answers
58 answers
57 answers
51 answers
36 answers
34 answers
32 answers
27 answers
27 answers
24 answers
23 answers
22 answers
20 answers
19 answers
16 answers
15 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers
11 answers
10 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

F4L1A1C3K5
Total: 14 points

Words With Friends

Total: 16 points

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

Strategy after playing FLACK

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing FLACK:

30% chance
Suggested:
TORSE
13% chance
Suggested:
TASER
8% chance
Suggested:
TOILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

30.2%
TORSE 6.25 bits
12.5%
TASER 5.44 bits
8.1%
TOILE 5.12 bits
5.3%
STIRE 5.25 bits
5.3%
TARSE 4.62 bits
4.8%
IRONE 5.44 bits
2.7%
TONER 4.62 bits
2.4%
RIONE 4.51 bits
2.4%
BIOSE 4.66 bits
2.1%
URITE 4.74 bits

Research on FLACK

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

Optimal play

Opening with FLACK, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses and ranks #8,404 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.84 guesses at best and is rank #2,619 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 3.76, 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 FLAK.

Rhymes with BLACK TRACK CRACK STACK SNACK

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, FLACK is a kind of voice or criticism.

Synonyms fire attack BLAST flak

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
FLACK sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.

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).