Past Wordle answer Possible answer Accepted guess C tier for first-turn info

KNELT

Yes, KNELT was the Wordle answer on October 12, 2023 (Wordle #845).

As an opener, it rules out about 93.6% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /nɛlt/

Verb

simple past and past participle of kneel.

Alternative forms: kneeled

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: October 12, 2023 (#845).

See the full page for that puzzle: October 12, 2023 (#845).

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

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How KNELT performs as a guess

KNELT 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 85.8% of games, misses completely in 14.2%, and leaves about 151 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,583 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.68 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 KNELT 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.

4.77 Entropy (bits)
151 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
93.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 70% of evaluated openers
1.17 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How KNELT 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.

3.68 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#5,583 Rank among openers
Opening with KNELT left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.68 average. It ranks #5,583 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
58
3 guesses
882
4 guesses
1,182
5 guesses
212
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:
ELNT

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
86%
Green tile
25%
All gray
14%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L E E T
D W E L T
K N E L T

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches KNELT in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

KNELT can come back 92 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

337 answers
321 answers
159 answers
151 answers
147 answers
128 answers
117 answers
108 answers
92 answers
72 answers
51 answers
50 answers
38 answers
35 answers
33 answers
33 answers
28 answers
25 answers
23 answers
23 answers
22 answers
22 answers
21 answers
21 answers
16 answers
16 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers
13 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

K5N1E1L1T1
Total: 9 points

Words With Friends

Total: 11 points

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

Strategy after playing KNELT

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing KNELT:

14% chance
Suggested:
CAROM
14% chance
Suggested:
RAISE
7% chance
Suggested:
ROANY

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

14.2%
CAROM 5.80 bits
13.5%
RAISE 5.25 bits
6.7%
ROANY 5.02 bits
6.4%
SORAL 5.15 bits
6.2%
SITAR 4.90 bits
5.4%
SEARE 4.63 bits
4.9%
TARTE 4.97 bits
4.5%
SIREE 4.70 bits
3.9%
AROSE 4.83 bits
3.0%
IDYLL 4.13 bits

Research on KNELT

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

Optimal play

Opening with KNELT, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #4,570 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 #1,797 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.68, at or below the proven-optimal 3.70, 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 NEHLT.

Rhymes with DEALT SMELT DWELT

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, KNELT is a kind of move or rest.

Synonyms kneeling

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
KNELT 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.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.1 of 5).

In a sentence

He knelt down to pray.
© tatoeba.org contributor Aghanim (CC BY 2.0 FR)
We knelt down to pray.
© tatoeba.org contributor CK (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).