works W₄O₁R₁K₅S₁

WORKS names factory sites, the inner mechanism of a clock and, on a menu, the full set of toppings. It ranks 495th in English frequency with a count of 79,323. The final S puts it in the biggest group of five-letter words.

WORKS facts

• Letters: K, O, R, S and W.
• Base Scrabble value: 12 points.
• K and W supply 9 of those points.
• Wordle status: allowed guess, not an answer.
• 14 neighbours, including WORDS, WORMS, FORKS and CORKS.

How many five-letter words end in S?

3,898 of 12,789 five-letter words end in S, about 30 percent. WORKS is one of them, which makes the final letter useless as a clue by itself. Plural endings fill that slot constantly, so you need other evidence.

In Wordle, a green S in the last square is a hint, not a solution.

What does WORKS offer in Wordle?

It is an allowed guess but never the answer, so it works as a pure probe. The W and K are the interesting tiles, because both turn up in far fewer words than the common vowels. A hit on either narrows the field sharply.

WORDS shares four letters with WORKS in the same places, and WORMS and FORKS do too. Pick WORKS when you want to check K against D, M or F in one go.

Where do the 12 points come from?

K is worth 5 and W is worth 4, which together make 9 of the 12. The other three tiles are worth 1 each. A double-letter square under the K takes the word to 17, and a triple-letter square would take it to 22.

Meaning does not enter the score, but it does explain the word's pull. WORKS is both a noun, as in a steelworks or the clockworks, and the third-person form of the verb, so almost any sentence can hold it and no opponent will question it.