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

KNELL

Yes, KNELL was the Wordle answer on August 14, 2025 (Wordle #1517).

As an opener, it rules out about 88.0% of possible answers.

Open Solver with KNELL Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /nɛl//nel/

Verb

To ring a bell slowly, especially for a funeral; to toll.

Verb

To signal or proclaim something (especially a death) by ringing a bell.

Noun

The sound of a bell knelling; a toll (particularly one signalling a death).

Noun

A sign of the end or demise of something or someone.

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: August 14, 2025 (#1517).

See the full page for that puzzle: August 14, 2025 (#1517).

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

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How KNELL performs as a guess

KNELL 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 75.7% of games, misses completely in 24.3%, and leaves about 285 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,505 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.83 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___L K in the 1st position and L in the 5th position K__L_ K in the 1st position and L in the 4th position _N__L N in the 2nd position and L in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe KNELL 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.

3.98 Entropy (bits)
285 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
88.0% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 22% of evaluated openers
1.96 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How KNELL 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.

3.83 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#12,505 Rank among openers
Opening with KNELL left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.83 average. It ranks #12,505 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
41
3 guesses
691
4 guesses
1,280
5 guesses
312
6 guesses
27
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:
ELN

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
22%
All gray
24%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S I L E N
B L E N D
K N E L L

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches KNELL in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

KNELL can come back 66 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

576 answers
476 answers
220 answers
127 answers
119 answers
107 answers
88 answers
62 answers
56 answers
51 answers
42 answers
35 answers
34 answers
32 answers
26 answers
25 answers
23 answers
22 answers
21 answers
21 answers
21 answers
18 answers
16 answers
14 answers
12 answers
9 answers
8 answers
8 answers
7 answers
6 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

K5N1E1L1L1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Try next

ROAST STAIR ROANY COAST SIREE SEARE

Strategy after playing KNELL

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing KNELL:

24% chance
Suggested:
ROAST
20% chance
Suggested:
STAIR
9% chance
Suggested:
ROANY

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

24.3% →
ROAST 6.10 bits
20.1% →
STAIR 5.43 bits
9.3% →
ROANY 4.99 bits
5.3% →
COAST 5.01 bits
5.0% →
SIREE 4.73 bits
4.5% →
SEARE 4.49 bits
3.7% →
SHART 5.11 bits
2.6% →
STARK 4.63 bits
2.4% →
ROAST 4.48 bits
2.1% →
SAUCY 4.25 bits

Research on KNELL

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

Optimal play

Opening with KNELL, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.85 guesses and ranks #12,683 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 KNELL can guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.83, at or below the proven-optimal 3.85, 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 NEHL.

Rhymes with HOTEL SMELL SHELL SPELL INTEL

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, KNELL is a kind of bell or ring.

Synonyms ring

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
KNELL sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.

In a sentence

Your death knell has not sounded.
© tatoeba.org contributor Aghanim (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).