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

KNOCK

Yes, KNOCK was the Wordle answer on December 10, 2022 (Wordle #539).

As an opener, it rules out about 80.4% of possible answers.

Open Solver with KNOCK Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /nɒk//nɑk/

Noun

An abrupt rapping sound, as from an impact of a hard object against wood.

Noun

A sharp impact.

“He took a knock on the head.”

Verb

To rap one's knuckles against something, especially wood.

“Knock on the door and find out if they’re home.”

Verb

To criticize verbally; to denigrate; to undervalue.

“Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.”

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: December 10, 2022 (#539).

See the full page for that puzzle: December 10, 2022 (#539).

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

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How KNOCK performs as a guess

KNOCK 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 59.6% of games, misses completely in 40.4%, and leaves about 465 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #12,813 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.84 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 KNOCK.

First-turn measures

All four describe KNOCK 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.

3.42 Entropy (bits)
465 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
80.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 6% of evaluated openers
2.53 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How KNOCK 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.

3.84 Avg guesses
99.83% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#12,813 Rank among openers
Opening with KNOCK left 4 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 3.84 average. It ranks #12,813 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
27
3 guesses
680
4 guesses
1,317
5 guesses
299
6 guesses
26
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:
NO

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
60%
Green tile
22%
All gray
40%

Example solver route

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

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches KNOCK in 3 guesses.

Feedback distribution

KNOCK can come back 53 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

958 answers
252 answers
231 answers
155 answers
144 answers
89 answers
63 answers
52 answers
51 answers
40 answers
37 answers
34 answers
26 answers
24 answers
23 answers
21 answers
21 answers
15 answers
12 answers
10 answers
9 answers
9 answers
8 answers
8 answers
7 answers
7 answers
6 answers
6 answers
5 answers
5 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

K5N1O1C3K5
Total: 15 points

Words With Friends

Total: 17 points

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

Try next

RAILE TALER TIARE RAISE SLART RONTE

Strategy after playing KNOCK

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing KNOCK:

40% chance
Suggested:
RAILE
11% chance
Suggested:
TALER
10% chance
Suggested:
TIARE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

40.4% →
RAILE 6.21 bits
10.6% →
TALER 5.24 bits
9.7% →
TIARE 5.46 bits
6.5% →
RAISE 5.52 bits
6.1% →
SLART 4.93 bits
3.7% →
RONTE 4.36 bits
2.7% →
TIARE 4.80 bits
2.2% →
IRATE 4.87 bits
2.1% →
LATER 4.66 bits
1.7% →
ALURE 4.41 bits

Research on KNOCK

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

Optimal play

Opening with KNOCK, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.88 guesses and ranks #13,482 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 4.01 guesses at best and is rank #6,346 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.84, at or below the proven-optimal 3.88, 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 NAHK.

Rhymes with STOCK BLOCK SHOCK CLOCK BROCK

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, KNOCK is a kind of sound or criticism.

Synonyms pink belt bang tap rap SMASH

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
KNOCK sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 22 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 A2); among the first words English learners study.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 5, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 77 of 100. Raters found it easy to picture.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sound (3.8 of 5).

In a sentence

We were just about to knock.
© tatoeba.org contributor sundown (CC BY 2.0 FR)
Knock it off, will you?
© 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); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).