5 Letter Words Starting With K

How to find a five-letter word that starts with a K

Looking for 5 letter words that start with K to solve a Wordle? The finder above already has K in the first green box; add your other clues.

A real example from our word list: the answer is KAPPA, and all you know is that it starts with K, which leaves 14 common words. Open with KAYAK, the guess that splits this set most evenly.

Guess 1: KAYAK K and A are green and A is yellow, and the rest are grey. That leaves 2 possible answers: karma and kappa.

Guess 2: KARMA K, A and A are green, and the rest are grey. That leaves 1 possible answer.

Guess 3: KAPPA All five letters are green. Solved in 3.

What comes after K?

In common words that start with K, the second letter is most often N (36%), A (21%) and I (14%). 50% have a vowel second, so if your consonant guesses keep missing, try A, E, I, O or U in the second spot.

About 5 letter words starting with K

When K comes before N at the start of a word, the K is silent: knife, knock, known and kneel. Those KN words make up a noticeable share of common K words. Most other K words are borrowed from other languages, like kayak, kebab, kiosk, koala and karma, which is why the common list is short. K is worth 5 points in Scrabble. In Wordle, if K is green in the first spot, test N in the second spot early; it's the most likely consonant to follow.

K ranks 15 out of 26 as a first letter for 5 letter words.

Word families that start with K

K words split between the silent-K family and borrowed words. The KN family includes knack and kneel. Borrowed words include karma from Sanskrit, kayak from Inuit, kebab from Arabic and Turkish, khaki from Hindi and Urdu, and kiosk from Turkish. A few K words are everyday English, like kitty. K is worth 5 points in Scrabble, and kayak is a useful word to know because it reads the same both ways. In Wordle, if K is green first, test N in the second spot before anything else, since the KN words are the most common answers. For words where K comes last, usually as -CK, see 5 letter words ending in K.

Vowels in 5 letter words starting with K

A is the most common vowel here, appearing in 57% of the common words, followed by I (29%) and O (29%). The least common is U (0%).

36% have just one vowel, like known, knock, kitty and kraft. At the other end, koala has three or more.

Nouns, verbs and adjectives

By main meaning (WordNet), there are 10 nouns, 2 verbs and 2 adjectives.

Nouns include knife, kitty and karma. Verbs include knock and kneel. Adjectives include known and khaki.

Best Wordle guesses that start with K

Top guesses, with the average number of the 14 common words each leaves: KNIFE (2.7) and KRAFT (2.7).

86% repeat a letter, and 3 have a double letter, like kitty, kappa and kneel.

Highest-scoring 5 letter words starting with K in Scrabble

Top common words: kayak (16), khaki (16) and knock (15). All valid words: karzy (21), khazi (21) and kudzu (19). 39 words reach 15 points or more.