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

KNARL

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

As an opener, it rules out about 93.7% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Noun

Alternative spelling of gnarl (“A knot in wood”).

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

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 KNARL performs as a guess

Wordle accepts KNARL 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 85.2% of games, misses completely in 14.8%, and leaves about 149 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,843 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.65 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 KNARL 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.

4.82 Entropy (bits)
149 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
93.7% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 73% of evaluated openers
1.12 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How KNARL 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.

3.65 Avg guesses
99.87% Solved within six
0.69 Spread of game lengths
#3,843 Rank among openers
Opening with KNARL left 3 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 3.65 average. It ranks #3,843 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
51
3 guesses
950
4 guesses
1,136
5 guesses
197
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
1 vowels
Common:
ALNR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
85%
Green tile
27%
All gray
15%

Feedback distribution

KNARL can come back 96 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

352 answers
298 answers
185 answers
164 answers
154 answers
113 answers
84 answers
78 answers
74 answers
64 answers
50 answers
46 answers
46 answers
45 answers
42 answers
36 answers
36 answers
35 answers
35 answers
32 answers
22 answers
21 answers
21 answers
18 answers
18 answers
15 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

K5N1A1R1L1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing KNARL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing KNARL:

15% chance
Suggested:
TOISE
13% chance
Suggested:
TOISE
8% chance
Suggested:
TOILE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

14.8%
TOISE 6.06 bits
12.6%
TOISE 5.54 bits
7.8%
TOILE 5.19 bits
6.9%
HOISE 5.46 bits
6.5%
CASTE 5.22 bits
4.8%
CATER 4.69 bits
3.5%
SALLE 4.51 bits
3.3%
TOISE 4.26 bits
3.1%
SHITE 5.03 bits
2.7%
GOIER 4.56 bits

Research on KNARL

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

Optimal play

Opening with KNARL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.69 guesses and ranks #4,209 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.81 guesses at best and is rank #1,675 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.65, at or below the proven-optimal 3.69, 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 NAHRL. 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.