KHAKI
Yes, KHAKI was the Wordle answer on August 14, 2022 (Wordle #421).
As an opener, it rules out about 84.8% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /xɑki//kʰɑki//ˈkɑː.ki/
- Noun
-
A dull, yellowish-brown colour, the colour of dust.
- Noun
-
Khaki green, a dull green colour.
- Adjective
-
Dust-coloured; of the colour of dust.
Alternative forms: carkee, carky, karkey, khakee
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: August 14, 2022 (#421).
See the full page for that puzzle: August 14, 2022 (#421).
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 KHAKI performs as a guess
KHAKI 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 71.8% of games, misses completely in 28.2%, and leaves about 361 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #14,333 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.93 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 KHAKI 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 KHAKI 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 KHAKI in 3 guesses.
Feedback distribution
KHAKI can come back 48 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 KHAKI; 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 KHAKI
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to KHAKI.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing KHAKI:
Research on KHAKI
Game-tree analysis and word research for KHAKI, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with KHAKI, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.94 guesses and ranks #14,360 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 4.09 guesses at best and is rank #7,102 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.93, at or below the proven-optimal 3.94, 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 KAHKEE.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, KHAKI is a kind of material.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- KHAKI sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about once 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 (4.1 of 5).
In a sentence
He was dressed in khaki.
His uniform was khaki-colored.
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).