WHACK
Yes, WHACK was the Wordle answer on January 26, 2022 (Wordle #221).
As an opener, it rules out about 83.6% of possible answers.
Meaning and pronunciation
Pronunciation: /ˈwæk//ˈʍæk/[ˈw̥æk]
- Noun
-
The sound of a heavy strike.
- Noun
-
The strike itself.
- Verb
-
To hit, slap or strike.
“The bat whacked the baseball.”
- Verb
-
To assassinate, bump off.
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 26, 2022 (#221).
See the full page for that puzzle: January 26, 2022 (#221).
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 WHACK performs as a guess
WHACK 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 65.5% of games, misses completely in 34.5%, and leaves about 388 possible answers on average.
In the previous complete opener benchmark, it ranks #11,262 of 14,855 openers, averaging 3.79 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 WHACK 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 WHACK 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 WHACK in 4 guesses.
Feedback distribution
WHACK can come back 82 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 WHACK; 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 WHACK
What the solver recommends next for each way the board can respond to WHACK.
Quick reference
Largest feedback groups after playing WHACK:
Research on WHACK
Game-tree analysis and word research for WHACK, with an explanation for each figure.
Optimal play
Opening with WHACK, a proven-optimal strategy averages 3.81 guesses and ranks #11,319 of 14,855 legal openers. The best proven opener, TARSE, averages 3.55.
In hard mode it averages 3.94 guesses at best and is rank #5,002 of the 7,453 openers that can still guarantee a solve within six guesses.
Our six-turn simulation says 3.79, at or below the proven-optimal 3.81, 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, WHACK is a kind of sound or blow.
Synonyms belt KNOCK rap
Familiarity and learning
- Frequency
- WHACK sits in the intermediate band of the wordfreq scale, appearing about 3 times per million words of written English; the band marks it as a word most readers meet regularly.
In a sentence
I had another whack at it.
Something's out of whack here.
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).