QUARK
Yes, QUARK was the Wordle answer on January 11, 2026 (Wordle #1667).
As an opener, it rules out about 88.5% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /kwɑːk//kwɑɹk//kwɔɹk/
- Noun
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In the Standard Model, one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter. They are theorized not to exist in isolation, but only in combinations in hadrons such as neutrons and protons or in quark–gluon plasmas.
- Noun
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An integer that uniquely identifies a text string.
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
YesIncluded in the Wordle guess list used by our tools.
Possible answer
YesIncluded among the answers considered by the solver.
Past Wordle answer
Used oncePast Wordle answer: January 11, 2026 (#1667).
See the full page for that puzzle: January 11, 2026 (#1667).
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 →How QUARK performs as a guess
QUARK 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 75.3% of games, misses completely in 24.7%, and leaves about 274 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #13,204 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.85 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 QUARK 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 QUARK 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
Example solver route
One example route used by the solver.
This solver benchmark reaches QUARK in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
QUARK can come back 58 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 QUARK; 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 QUARK
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to QUARK.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing QUARK:
Research on QUARK
Game-tree analysis and word research for QUARK, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with QUARK, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.88 guesses and ranks #13,473 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 4.04 guesses at best and is rank #6,715 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.85, 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.
Related meanings
In WordNet's sense inventory, QUARK is a kind of particle or cheese.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- QUARK 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 (1.9 of 5).
In a sentence
Tom, could you explain to me what a quark is?
Tom crumbled up biscuits and mixed them into the quark.
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).