NICKS
NICKS is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /nɪks/
- Noun
-
plural of nick
- Verb
-
third-person singular simple present indicative of nick
Source: Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Corrections.
Etymology
From a diminutive of the given name Nicholas + the patronymic suffix -s.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA)
How it sounds
One syllable Say it NIHKS.
Rhymes with PICKS KICKS HICKS TICKS LICKS
Related meanings
Synonyms chip NOTCH dent ding
In a sentence
He nicks anything and everything.
He nicks all sorts of stuff.
Use NICKS in a puzzle
As an opener, it rules out about 88.1% of possible answers.
Wordle status
A word can be a playable guess without being a possible answer.
Playable guess
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
NoThe solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.
Past Wordle answer
No completed appearanceNo appearance in our globally completed history. A recent puzzle may still be live elsewhere.
The possible-answer list is the solver's current list and may change when Wordle adds new answers.
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See what the public sample says →NICKS in Connections
2 recorded appearances in completed main-edition puzzles through . A category label alone does not establish a word's meaning.
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· Puzzle #334
Reveal this appearance's category
NICKS appeared in LEAD SINGERS OF ’70S ROCK BANDS (purple group).
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· Puzzle #104
Reveal this appearance's category
NICKS appeared in WOMEN SINGERS (purple group).
How NICKS performs as a guess
Wordle accepts NICKS 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 71.3% of games, misses completely in 28.7%, and leaves about 284 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #6,518 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.69 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.
Useful pattern pages
If you only know part of the word, start with one of these matching patterns.
First-turn measures
All four describe NICKS 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.
As an opening guess: previous benchmark
How NICKS 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.
Composition
Feedback chances
Feedback distribution
NICKS can come back 76 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:
Letter-value totals
Base letter-value totals for NICKS; these do not show whether either game accepts the word.
Scrabble
Words With Friends
Scores shown are base values without double/triple letter or word bonuses.
Try next
Strategy after playing NICKS
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to NICKS.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing NICKS:
Research on NICKS
Game-tree analysis and word research for NICKS, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with NICKS, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.74 guesses and ranks #7,397 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.86 guesses at best and is rank #3,214 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.69, at or below the proven-optimal 3.74, 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.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- NICKS sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about once per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
- Dominant sense
- Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sight (3.1 of 5).
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).