5 FiveLetterWords
Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess F tier for first-turn info

KNACK

Yes, KNACK was the Wordle answer on January 15, 2025 (Wordle #1306).

As an opener, it rules out about 83.6% of possible answers.

Open Solver with KNACK Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /næk/

Noun

A readiness in performance; aptness at doing something.

Noun

A petty contrivance; a toy.

Verb

To speak affectedly.

Verb

To crack; to make a sharp, abrupt noise; to chink.

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

Used once

Past Wordle answer: January 15, 2025 (#1306).

See the full page for that puzzle: January 15, 2025 (#1306).

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

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How KNACK performs as a guess

KNACK 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 65.6% of games, misses completely in 34.4%, and leaves about 389 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,189 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.85 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.

K___K K in the 1st position and K in the 5th position K__C_ K in the 1st position and C in the 4th position _N__K N in the 2nd position and K in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe KNACK 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.

3.60 Entropy (bits)
389 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
83.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 9% of evaluated openers
2.35 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How KNACK 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.

3.85 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.71 Spread of game lengths
#13,189 Rank among openers
Opening with KNACK left 3 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 3.85 average. It ranks #13,189 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
32
3 guesses
667
4 guesses
1,289
5 guesses
337
6 guesses
25
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:
AN

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
66%
Green tile
24%
All gray
34%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I C K
A H E N T
K N A C K

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches KNACK in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

KNACK can come back 61 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

816 answers
368 answers
224 answers
170 answers
125 answers
103 answers
68 answers
50 answers
49 answers
34 answers
31 answers
30 answers
30 answers
28 answers
23 answers
16 answers
16 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers
11 answers
10 answers
10 answers
8 answers
7 answers
7 answers
6 answers
6 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

K5N1A1C3K5
Total: 15 points

Words With Friends

Total: 17 points

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

Try next

TOILE TALER GOIER STIRE COURE TONER

Strategy after playing KNACK

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing KNACK:

34% chance
Suggested:
TOILE
16% chance
Suggested:
TALER
9% chance
Suggested:
GOIER

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

34.4% →
TOILE 6.03 bits
15.5% →
TALER 5.65 bits
9.4% →
GOIER 5.51 bits
7.2% →
STIRE 5.22 bits
5.3% →
COURE 5.44 bits
4.3% →
TONER 4.40 bits
2.9% →
LATER 4.73 bits
2.1% →
URITE 4.89 bits
2.1% →
TRIPE 4.64 bits
1.4% →
SHOER 4.10 bits

Research on KNACK

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

Optimal play

Opening with KNACK, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.87 guesses and ranks #13,194 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.99 guesses at best and is rank #6,006 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.85, at or below the proven-optimal 3.87, 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 NAK.

Rhymes with BLACK TRACK CRACK STACK SNACK

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, KNACK is a kind of gift.

Synonyms hang bent

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
KNACK 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 (2.2 of 5).

In a sentence

This guy has a knack for music.
© tatoeba.org contributor megamanenm (CC BY 2.0 FR)
He has a knack for math.
© tatoeba.org contributor Ussis (CC BY 2.0 FR)

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).