Accepted guess Not a possible answer C tier for first-turn info

SPORK

SPORK is accepted as a guess but is not on the solver's possible-answer list.

As an opener, it rules out about 90.8% of possible answers.

Meaning and pronunciation

Pronunciation: /ˈspɔːk//ˈspoɹk//spɔɹk/

Noun

An eating utensil shaped like a spoon, the bowl of which is divided into tines like those of a fork, and so has the function of both implements; some sporks have a serrated edge so they can also function as a knife.

Verb

To move or impale (food etc.) with a spork.

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

No

The solver does not currently treat this as a possible answer.

Past Wordle answer

Not used yet

No past answer date found.

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

How SPORK performs as a guess

Wordle accepts SPORK 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 76.5% of games, misses completely in 23.5%, and leaves about 219 possible answers on average.

In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #5,813 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.

All gray? Tap a tile to cycle gray → yellow → green.

First-turn measures

All four describe SPORK 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.

4.49 Entropy (bits)
219 Avg remaining
0.0% Exact match
90.8% Avg ruled out
Higher first-turn entropy than about 51% of evaluated openers
1.45 bits below the highest measured first-turn entropy (~5.95 bits)

As an opening guess: previous benchmark

How SPORK 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.

3.68 Avg guesses
99.96% Solved within six
0.70 Spread of game lengths
#5,813 Rank among openers
Opening with SPORK left 1 of the snapshot's answers unsolved after six guesses. A spread of 0.70 means those games clustered within about 0.70 of a guess of the 3.68 average. It ranks #5,813 of 14,855 openers by average guesses in games solved within six.
1 guess
0
2 guesses
57
3 guesses
877
4 guesses
1,188
5 guesses
218
6 guesses
13
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:
ORS

Feedback chances

Any hit (G/Y)
76%
Green tile
30%
All gray
24%

Feedback distribution

SPORK can come back 93 different ways. These are the most likely, and how many of the possible answers give each one:

557 answers
303 answers
202 answers
138 answers
110 answers
104 answers
100 answers
69 answers
66 answers
55 answers
45 answers
41 answers
35 answers
33 answers
32 answers
32 answers
28 answers
23 answers
21 answers
21 answers
20 answers
20 answers
18 answers
17 answers
15 answers
14 answers
13 answers
12 answers
12 answers
12 answers

Letter-value totals

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

Scrabble

S1P3O1R1K5
Total: 11 points

Words With Friends

Total: 12 points

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

Strategy after playing SPORK

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

Quick reference

Largest feedback groups after playing SPORK:

23% chance
Suggested:
LIANE
13% chance
Suggested:
CADET
9% chance
Suggested:
LEANT

Follow-ups for common patterns

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

23.5%
LIANE 6.11 bits
12.8%
CADET 5.42 bits
8.5%
LEANT 4.99 bits
5.8%
LEANT 5.40 bits
4.6%
ROTOR 4.43 bits
4.4%
LEAST 5.13 bits
4.2%
PLATE 5.35 bits
2.9%
BEATY 4.78 bits
2.8%
BLATE 4.68 bits
2.3%
PRICE 4.53 bits

Research on SPORK

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

Optimal play

Opening with SPORK, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.71 guesses and ranks #5,292 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 #1,892 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 3.71, 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 SPAWRK. Estimated pronunciation

This pronunciation is machine-estimated, not taken from a pronunciation dictionary.

Related meanings

In WordNet's sense inventory, SPORK is a kind of cutlery.

Familiarity and learning

Frequency
SPORK sits in the advanced band of the wordfreq scale, appearing less than once per million words of written English; the band marks it as an uncommon word many players still recognize.

In a sentence

They only gave me a spork to eat it with.
© tatoeba.org contributor shekitten (CC BY 2.0 FR)

Sources: Optimal-play values: Alex Selby's exhaustive Wordle analysis (MIT); Pronunciation: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (BSD), with machine estimates from the g2p_en model; Word relations: Open English WordNet, 2025 edition (CC BY 4.0); Word frequency: wordfreq (data CC BY-SA 4.0).