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

SPOKE

Yes, SPOKE was the Wordle answer on December 13, 2022 (Wordle #542).

As an opener, it rules out about 92.6% of possible answers.

Open Solver with SPOKE Open Word Finder

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /spəʊk//spoʊk/

Noun

A support structure that connects the axle or the hub of a wheel to the rim.

Noun

A projecting handle of a steering wheel.

Verb

To furnish (a wheel) with spokes.

Verb

simple past of speak

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: December 13, 2022 (#542).

See the full page for that puzzle: December 13, 2022 (#542).

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

Wordle Observatory · optional

Played this Wordle?

Add your result to the public totals · about 20 seconds

Add your result and a quick difficulty rating to help explain how this puzzle played.

See the public data

The Observatory retains the selected puzzle, result, rating, optional Hard Mode answer and a random one-puzzle receipt. It stores no answer word, grid, guesses, account, email, IP-derived ID or reusable player identifier.

How verification and withdrawal work

The answer word and timezone are used transiently to verify this page, then discarded. The receipt prevents duplicate submissions and lets this browser withdraw later; anyone with that token can withdraw, so keep browser-data exports private. Read the full privacy details.

How SPOKE performs as a guess

SPOKE 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 83.2% of games, misses completely in 16.8%, and leaves about 177 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #7,148 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.70 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.

S___E S in the 1st position and E in the 5th position S__K_ S in the 1st position and K in the 4th position _P__E P in the 2nd position and E in the 5th position

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

First-turn measures

All four describe SPOKE 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.

4.68 Entropy (bits)
177 Avg remaining
0.04% Exact match
92.6% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 64% of evaluated openers
1.27 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SPOKE 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.

3.70 Avg guesses
99.92% Solved within six
0.72 Spread of game lengths
#7,148 Rank among openers
Opening with SPOKE left 2 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.72 means those games clustered within about 0.72 of a guess of the 3.70 average. It ranks #7,148 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
1
2 guesses
66
3 guesses
832
4 guesses
1,199
5 guesses
235
6 guesses
19
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
2 vowels
Common:
EOS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
83%
Green tile
38%
All gray
17%

Example solver route

R O A T E
S L I N K
S M O K E
S P O K E

One example route used by the solver.

This solver benchmark reaches SPOKE in 4 guesses.

Feedback distribution

SPOKE can come back 97 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

400 answers
343 answers
227 answers
186 answers
103 answers
87 answers
79 answers
74 answers
73 answers
54 answers
46 answers
42 answers
42 answers
41 answers
34 answers
31 answers
30 answers
30 answers
28 answers
27 answers
26 answers
24 answers
22 answers
21 answers
15 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
13 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1P3O1K5E1
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Try next

TRAIL ALTER TONAL LAIRY SHALT SLART

Strategy after playing SPOKE

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SPOKE:

17% chance
Suggested:
TRAIL
14% chance
Suggested:
ALTER
10% chance
Suggested:
TONAL

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

16.8% →
TRAIL 5.97 bits
14.4% →
ALTER 5.38 bits
9.6% →
TONAL 4.91 bits
7.8% →
LAIRY 4.54 bits
4.3% →
SHALT 4.72 bits
3.7% →
SLART 4.19 bits
3.3% →
LOVER 4.07 bits
3.1% →
PLAIT 5.11 bits
3.1% →
TRUSS 4.64 bits
2.3% →
PLIER 4.75 bits

Research on SPOKE

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

Optimal play

Opening with SPOKE, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.70 guesses and ranks #4,748 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 #2,225 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.

Our six-turn simulation says 3.70; proven optimal play reaches 3.70. The fixed strategy accounts for the difference.

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 SPOHK.

Rhymes with BROKE SMOKE STOKE CHOKE CLOAK

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SPOKE is a kind of support or brace.

Synonyms radius rung

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SPOKE sits in the common band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 41 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as an everyday word almost every player will know.
Dominant sense
Lancaster raters associated it most strongly with sound (3.4 of 5).

In a sentence

I just spoke to her.
© tatoeba.org contributor Hybrid (CC BY 2.0 FR)
I just spoke to him.
© tatoeba.org contributor Hybrid (CC BY 2.0 FR)

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).