Accepted guess Not a possible answer C tier for first-turn info

IKANS

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

No dictionary definition for IKANS is recorded in our sourced data.

As an opener, it rules out about 92.1% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

We do not have a sourced definition for this word yet.

Check IKANS on Wiktionary or report a missing entry.

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 IKANS performs as a guess

Wordle accepts IKANS 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 81.0% of games, misses completely in 19.0%, and leaves about 187 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,106 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.70 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 IKANS 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.

4.53 Entropy (bits)
187 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
92.1% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 54% of evaluated openers
1.42 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How IKANS 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.

3.70 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#7,106 Rank among openers
Opening with IKANS left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.69 means those games clustered within about 0.69 of a guess of the 3.70 average. It ranks #7,106 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
44
3 guesses
856
4 guesses
1,221
5 guesses
214
6 guesses
17
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
2 vowels
Common:
AINS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
81%
Green tile
22%
All gray
19%

Feedback distribution

IKANS can come back 78 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

450 answers
291 answers
246 answers
182 answers
113 answers
96 answers
77 answers
77 answers
75 answers
73 answers
66 answers
61 answers
45 answers
34 answers
32 answers
28 answers
24 answers
21 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

I1K5A1N1S1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 10 points

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

Strategy after playing IKANS

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing IKANS:

19% chance
Suggested:
ROUET
12% chance
Suggested:
TALER
10% chance
Suggested:
TILDE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

19.0%
ROUET 5.96 bits
12.3%
TALER 5.64 bits
10.4%
TILDE 5.41 bits
7.7%
PORTE 5.61 bits
4.8%
TRUCE 4.91 bits
4.0%
MOREE 4.90 bits
3.2%
TALER 4.71 bits
3.2%
SHULE 4.32 bits
3.2%
CANOE 4.46 bits
3.1%
STIPE 4.62 bits

Research on IKANS

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

Optimal play

Opening with IKANS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.74 guesses and ranks #7,283 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.87 guesses at best and is rank #3,426 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.70, at or below the proven-optimal 3.74, 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

Two syllables, stress on the first syllable Say it YKUHNZ. Estimated pronunciation

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

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