KAYAK
Yes, KAYAK was the Wordle answer on April 21, 2023 (Wordle #671).
As an opener, it rules out about 75.7% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈkaɪˌæk/
- Noun
-
A type of small boat, covered over by a surface deck, powered by the occupant or occupants using a double-bladed paddle in a sitting position, from a hole in the surface deck.
- Verb
-
To use a kayak, to travel or race in a kayak.
“Kayaking is an Olympic sport.”
- Verb
-
To traverse (a body of water) by kayak.
“On a dare, he kayaked the Harlem River in New York from Hell's Gate to Spyten Duyvil.”
Alternative forms: kaiak, kiack, kyack, kyak
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: April 21, 2023 (#671).
See the full page for that puzzle: April 21, 2023 (#671).
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 →How KAYAK performs as a guess
KAYAK 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 55.3% of games, misses completely in 44.7%, and leaves about 577 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #14,788 of 14,855 openers, averaging 4.05 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 KAYAK 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 KAYAK 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 KAYAK in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
KAYAK can come back 43 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 KAYAK; 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 KAYAK
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to KAYAK.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing KAYAK:
Research on KAYAK
Game-tree analysis and word research for KAYAK, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with KAYAK, a proven-optimal strategy averages 4.03 guesses and ranks #14,756 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 KAYAK can guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 4.05; proven optimal play reaches 4.03. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.
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 KYAK.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, KAYAK is a kind of canoe or boat.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- KAYAK sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 2 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.8 of 5).
In a sentence
The kayak struck a tree.
He flipped over with a kayak.
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).