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

PRICK

Yes, PRICK was the Wordle answer on January 21, 2022 (Wordle #216).

As an opener, it rules out about 89.4% of possible answers.

Open Solver with PRICK Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /pɹɪk/[pʰɹ̠̊ɪk]

Noun

A small hole or perforation, caused by piercing.

Noun

An indentation or small mark made with a pointed object.

Verb

To pierce or puncture slightly.

“John hardly felt the needle prick his arm when the adept nurse drew blood.”

Verb

To form by piercing or puncturing.

“to prick holes in paper”

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: January 21, 2022 (#216).

See the full page for that puzzle: January 21, 2022 (#216).

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

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How PRICK performs as a guess

PRICK 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 73.6% of games, misses completely in 26.4%, and leaves about 252 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #3,234 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.64 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.

P___K P in the 1st position and K in the 5th position P__C_ P in the 1st position and C in the 4th position _R__K R in the 2nd position and K in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe PRICK 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.

4.39 Entropy (bits)
252 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
89.4% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 44% of evaluated openers
1.56 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How PRICK 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.

3.64 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.68 Spread of game lengths
#3,234 Rank among openers
Opening with PRICK left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.68 means those games clustered within about 0.68 of a guess of the 3.64 average. It ranks #3,234 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
58
3 guesses
935
4 guesses
1,161
5 guesses
187
6 guesses
11
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:
IR

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
74%
Green tile
31%
All gray
26%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I C K
B I C E P
P R I C K

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches PRICK in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

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

626 answers
329 answers
179 answers
123 answers
104 answers
102 answers
79 answers
73 answers
51 answers
51 answers
49 answers
49 answers
38 answers
32 answers
31 answers
27 answers
25 answers
20 answers
19 answers
19 answers
17 answers
17 answers
15 answers
14 answers
14 answers
14 answers
12 answers
12 answers
12 answers
11 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

P3R1I1C3K5
Total: 13 points

Words With Friends

Total: 15 points

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

Try next

SALET TERRA TILDE SLANE ATONE COATE

Strategy after playing PRICK

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing PRICK:

26% chance
Suggested:
SALET
14% chance
Suggested:
TERRA
8% chance
Suggested:
TILDE

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

26.4% →
SALET 6.29 bits
13.9% →
TERRA 5.36 bits
7.5% →
TILDE 5.16 bits
5.2% →
SLANE 5.26 bits
4.4% →
ATONE 4.88 bits
4.3% →
COATE 5.44 bits
3.3% →
STOLE 5.23 bits
3.1% →
SATED 4.39 bits
2.1% →
COATE 4.73 bits
2.1% →
SAUTE 4.88 bits

Research on PRICK

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

Optimal play

Opening with PRICK, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #4,726 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.

In hard mode it averages 3.82 guesses at best and is rank #1,809 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.64, 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 PRIHK.

Rhymes with QUICK CLICK STICK TRICK THICK

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, PRICK is a kind of actor or depression.

Synonyms shit dick tool asshole bite cock

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
PRICK sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 4 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
Learner level
Appears in intermediate learner vocabulary (CEFR-J level B2); a word learners usually reach after the basics.
Age of acquisition
Typically learned around age 10, by Glasgow Norms speaker ratings.
Imageability
Imageability score: 65 of 100. Raters gave it a middle-range score.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with touch (3.8 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); Learner levels: CEFR-J Wordlist ver 1.5, Tono Laboratory, TUFS; Glasgow Norms (CC BY 4.0); Lancaster Sensorimotor Norms (CC BY 4.0).