Word Lists · P _ _ _ K
5 Letter Words Starting With P and Ending in K
Every five-letter word that fits P _ _ _ K — answer-eligible words are flagged in green, and you can tap any word to play it.
How Many 5-Letter Words Start With P and End in K?
P…K is one of the narrower shapes in the dictionary: 13 five-letter words open with P and close with K, and 5 of them can be the daily answer — PLANK, PLUCK, PLUNK among them. With both ends green you are usually three letters from done.
Once both ends are green, the second letter is where the puzzle actually lives — and here it is L far more often than anything else, 62% of the time, as in PLANK, PLUCK, PLUNK.
Only 23% hold two or more vowels, which makes this a consonant-dense shape; a single vowel in the middle is the common case.
Green-dotted words are answer-eligible — the everyday vocabulary the daily puzzle actually draws from — while hollow-dotted words are valid guesses you can play but that will never be the solution. Flip on Answers only to focus on the 5 words that could truly win the board.
Best Wordle Guesses That Fit P _ _ _ K
Once P and K are green, the strongest follow-up is a word that both fits the pattern and rules out as many remaining answers as possible. These three score highest, measured across all 2296 possible answers:
- 01 PRANK — eliminates about 92.5% of remaining answers on average.
- 02 PLANK — eliminates about 91.1% of remaining answers on average.
- 03 PRICK — eliminates about 89.4% of remaining answers on average.
The Full List, Grouped by Second Letter
The middle barely varies: only 3 distinct second letters appear across these 13 words (PL·8, PR·4, PU·1). That makes square two an easy elimination rather than a real unknown.
P···K Words That Have Been Wordle Answers
This shape is rare in the daily puzzle. In 1916 Wordles, only 5 words with P and ending in K have been the answer: PRANK (#1459, 2025-06-17), PLUNK (#724, 2023-06-13), PLANK (#697, 2023-05-17), PRICK (#216, 2022-01-21), PLUCK (#185, 2021-12-21). Every answer-eligible word here has already had its turn.
| Puzzle | Date | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| #1459 | 2025-06-17 | PRANK |
| #724 | 2023-06-13 | PLUNK |
| #697 | 2023-05-17 | PLANK |
| #216 | 2022-01-21 | PRICK |
| #185 | 2021-12-21 | PLUCK |
The other 8 words are valid guesses the game accepts but will never choose as a solution. They are still useful as probes — words you play to expose new letters — but when you are guessing to win, a green-dotted answer word is the smarter pick.
P···K Words by Vowel Count & Second Letter
Vowel structure is the fastest way to narrow the middle three squares. Here is how the 13 P···K words split by how many vowels they contain in total:
| Vowels | Words | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 or fewer | 10 | 77% |
| Exactly 2 | 3 | 23% |
| 3 or more | 0 | 0% |
And the most common second letters among P···K words — handy when a yellow tile hints at the square right after P:
| Pattern | Words |
|---|---|
| PL···K | 8 |
| PR···K | 4 |
| PU···K | 1 |
How to Use These Words to Win Wordle
- Pin the second letter first. The square after P splits the list fastest — PL alone accounts for 8 of the 13 candidates, so fixing that tile drops most of the rest.
- Favor distinct letters early. 12 of the 13 words here use five different letters and 1 repeat one.
Full strategy lives in the how-to-play guide, and you can practice any time on the unlimited Wordle board.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many 5-letter words start with P and end in K?
There are 13 valid five-letter words that start with P and end in K in our Wordle dictionary, and 5 of them can appear as a daily answer. Turn on the "Answers only" filter above to narrow the P···K list to answer-eligible words.
What are the best P···K words for Wordle?
PRANK, PLANK, PRICK are the strongest. PRANK eliminates about 92.5% of the answer pool on average, so if a clue has already fixed P and K, guessing PRANK both tests the pattern and rules out the most remaining words. See more best Wordle starting words.
Which P to K words have been Wordle answers?
5 of them, across 1916 puzzles. The most recent was PRANK (#1459) on 2025-06-17, and the first was PLUCK on 2021-12-21. Every answer-eligible P···K word has already been used. Browse the full past Wordle answers archive.
Do these P···K words work in hard mode?
Yes. Once P and K are green you must keep them, so this list is exactly your hard-mode candidate set. 12 of the 13 words use five distinct letters and 1 repeat one — worth knowing, because hard mode will not let you drop a confirmed letter to probe elsewhere. See the how-to-play guide.
What is the most common second letter in P···K words?
L — PL accounts for 8 of the 13 words (62%), ahead of PR with 4. With both ends already green, square two is usually the tile worth testing first.
How many vowels do P···K words usually have?
23% of these 13 words carry two or more vowels — 3 have exactly two and 0 have three or more, against 10 with one or fewer. With P and K already fixed, that tells you how much vowel room the three middle squares still need. For a full clue-by-clue solve, send your board to the Wordle Solver.