SMIRK
Yes, SMIRK was the Wordle answer on October 21, 2023 (Wordle #854).
As an opener, it rules out about 91.1% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /smɜːk//smɝk/
- Noun
-
An uneven, often crooked smile that is insolent, self-satisfied, conceited or scornful.
- Noun
-
A forced or affected smile.
- Verb
-
To smile in a way that is affected, smug, insolent or contemptuous.
- Adjective
-
smart; spruce; affected; simpering
Alternative forms: smerk, smirke
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: October 21, 2023 (#854).
See the full page for that puzzle: October 21, 2023 (#854).
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 SMIRK performs as a guess
SMIRK 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 78.4% of games, misses completely in 21.6%, and leaves about 212 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,327 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.68 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 SMIRK 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 SMIRK 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 SMIRK in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
SMIRK can come back 89 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 SMIRK; 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 SMIRK
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to SMIRK.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing SMIRK:
Research on SMIRK
Game-tree analysis and word research for SMIRK, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with SMIRK, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.72 guesses and ranks #6,352 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.84 guesses at best and is rank #2,493 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.68, at or below the proven-optimal 3.72, 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, SMIRK is a kind of smile or communicate.
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- SMIRK 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 (4.5 of 5).
In a sentence
He had a smirk on his face.
She had a smirk on her face.
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).