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

KNIFE

Yes, KNIFE was the Wordle answer on September 18, 2025 (Wordle #1552).

As an opener, it rules out about 90.4% of possible answers.

Open Solver with KNIFE Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈnaɪ̯f//ˈnɐɪ̯f//ˈnɜɪ̯f/

Noun

A utensil or a tool designed for cutting, consisting of a flat piece of hard material, usually steel or other metal (the blade), usually sharpened on one edge, attached to a handle. The blade may be pointed for piercing.

“He was looking for a knife to chop some steak.”

Noun

A weapon designed with the aforementioned specifications intended for slashing or stabbing but too short to be called a sword; a dagger.

Verb

To cut with a knife.

Verb

To use a knife to injure or kill by stabbing, slashing, or otherwise using the sharp edge of the knife as a weapon.

“She was repeatedly knifed in the chest.”

Alternative forms: knyfe, knive

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: September 18, 2025 (#1552).

See the full page for that puzzle: September 18, 2025 (#1552).

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

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How KNIFE performs as a guess

KNIFE 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 77.8% of games, misses completely in 22.2%, and leaves about 228 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #8,922 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.74 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___E K in the 1st position and E in the 5th position K__F_ K in the 1st position and F in the 4th position _N__E N in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe KNIFE 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.

4.36 Entropy (bits)
228 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
90.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 42% of evaluated openers
1.59 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How KNIFE 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.

3.74 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#8,922 Rank among openers
Opening with KNIFE 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 3.74 average. It ranks #8,922 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
59
3 guesses
792
4 guesses
1,221
5 guesses
260
6 guesses
19
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
2 vowels
Common:
EIN

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
78%
Green tile
31%
All gray
22%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I N G
K N I F E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches KNIFE in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

KNIFE can come back 86 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

526 answers
351 answers
234 answers
171 answers
155 answers
78 answers
68 answers
58 answers
54 answers
51 answers
47 answers
43 answers
42 answers
37 answers
29 answers
26 answers
26 answers
22 answers
19 answers
19 answers
19 answers
18 answers
17 answers
16 answers
15 answers
15 answers
13 answers
11 answers
11 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

K5N1I1F4E1
Total: 12 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Try next

SORAL ALTER SLART RATIO ROAST LEARN

Strategy after playing KNIFE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing KNIFE:

22% chance
Suggested:
SORAL
15% chance
Suggested:
ALTER
10% chance
Suggested:
SLART

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

22.2% →
SORAL 5.96 bits
14.8% →
ALTER 5.36 bits
9.9% →
SLART 5.32 bits
7.2% →
RATIO 5.00 bits
6.5% →
ROAST 5.17 bits
3.3% →
LEARN 4.41 bits
2.9% →
SLART 4.81 bits
2.4% →
CHALK 4.72 bits
2.3% →
SLART 3.88 bits
2.1% →
COAST 4.51 bits

Research on KNIFE

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

Optimal play

Opening with KNIFE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.76 guesses and ranks #8,729 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.91 guesses at best and is rank #4,310 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.74, at or below the proven-optimal 3.76, 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 NYF.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, KNIFE is a kind of cutter or arm.

Synonyms tongue stab

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
KNIFE sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 26 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Learner level
Appears in beginner learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level A1); among the first words English learners study.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 5, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 94 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (4.5 of 5).

In a sentence

That is not your knife.
© tatoeba.org contributor CC (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Do I have a knife?
© tatoeba.org contributor CM (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); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).