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

KNOSP

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

As an opener, it rules out about 88.4% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /nɒsp/

Noun

Alternative form of knop (“a knob”).

Noun

The unopened bud of a flower.

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 KNOSP performs as a guess

Wordle accepts KNOSP 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 71.1% of games, misses completely in 28.9%, and leaves about 276 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,315 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.67 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.

Useful pattern pages

If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.

First-turn measures

All four describe KNOSP 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.

4.21 Entropy (bits)
276 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
88.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 33% of evaluated openers
1.74 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How KNOSP 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.

3.67 Avg guesses
100% Solved within six
0.66 Spread of game lengths
#5,315 Rank among openers
Opening with KNOSP solved every answer in the snapshot within six guesses. A spread of 0.66 means those games clustered within about 0.66 of a guess of the 3.67 average. It ranks #5,315 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
38
3 guesses
893
4 guesses
1,229
5 guesses
184
6 guesses
10
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:
NOS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
71%
Green tile
22%
All gray
29%

Feedback distribution

KNOSP can come back 75 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

687 answers
234 answers
201 answers
181 answers
118 answers
92 answers
87 answers
87 answers
58 answers
45 answers
41 answers
40 answers
33 answers
30 answers
28 answers
25 answers
24 answers
24 answers
23 answers
23 answers
22 answers
18 answers
18 answers
15 answers
15 answers
15 answers
11 answers
10 answers
9 answers
9 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

K5N1O1S1P3
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 13 points

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

Strategy after playing KNOSP

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing KNOSP:

29% chance
Suggested:
TIARE
10% chance
Suggested:
TALER
8% chance
Suggested:
TIARE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

28.9%
TIARE 6.29 bits
9.9%
TALER 5.32 bits
8.5%
TIARE 5.36 bits
7.6%
STALE 5.53 bits
5.0%
PARLE 5.50 bits
3.9%
THALE 4.96 bits
3.7%
BLARE 4.65 bits
3.7%
RONTE 4.40 bits
2.4%
CARLE 5.03 bits
1.9%
WAITE 4.56 bits

Research on KNOSP

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

Optimal play

Opening with KNOSP, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.73 guesses and ranks #6,696 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.83 guesses at best and is rank #2,195 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.67, at or below the proven-optimal 3.73, 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 NAHSP. 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.