The ones worth remembering: BURQA, NIQAB, RAFIQ, TALAQ, TRANQ, QIBLA. None of the 23 has ever been a Wordle answer, and none is on the answer list, so they are only useful as guesses (or in Scrabble-style games).
The full list
| Word | Meaning | Rarity |
|---|---|---|
| BURQA | a full-body veil | Legendary |
| NIQAB | a face veil leaving the eyes uncovered | Legendary |
| RAFIQ | a companion (Arabic) | Legendary |
| TALAQ | divorce under Islamic law | Mythic |
| TRANQ | short for tranquilizer | Mythic |
| QIBLA | the direction of Mecca, faced in prayer | Mythic |
| QIPAO | a fitted Chinese dress (cheongsam) | Mythic |
| FAQIR | a Sufi ascetic (fakir) | Mythic |
| MAQAM | a melodic mode in Arabic music | Mythic |
| QANAT | an underground irrigation channel | Mythic |
| GUQIN | a seven-string Chinese zither | Mythic |
| QADIS | plural of qadi, a judge in Islamic law | Mythic |
| RIQQS | plural of riqq, a small tambourine | Not in our corpus |
| QAIDS | plural of qaid, a local chief | Not in our corpus |
| CINQS | plural of cinq, the five in dice or cards | Not in our corpus |
| WAQFS | plural of waqf, a charitable endowment | Not in our corpus |
| UMIAQ | an open Inuit boat (umiak) | Not in our corpus |
| FIQHS | plural of fiqh, Islamic jurisprudence | Not in our corpus |
| QOPHS | plural of qoph, a Hebrew letter | Not in our corpus |
| QORMA | a variant spelling of korma | Not in our corpus |
| QILAS | plural of qila, a fort | Not in our corpus |
| QAJAQ | a variant spelling of kayak | Not in our corpus |
| QAPIK | a coin of Azerbaijan | Not in our corpus |
Rarity is how often the word appears in written English, the same scale Wordillion scores with. Anything Epic or rarer is something most players have never typed.
Why Q usually needs U
English inherited QU from Latin through French, where it spelled a /kw/ sound, so nearly every native English Q is followed by U. The exceptions are transliterations: Arabic and Hebrew have a consonant pronounced further back in the throat than K, which is written Q in most romanizations (QIBLA, TALAQ, QOPH). Chinese pinyin uses Q for a “ch” sound (QIPAO, GUQIN). Inuit languages use Q for a uvular stop (UMIAQ, QAJAQ).
Should you guess one in Wordle?
Almost never. None can be the answer, and Q is the second-rarest letter in Wordle answers, so a guess spends a slot on a letter that is very unlikely to score. The one time it helps: you have confirmed a Q and want to rule out positions without spending a vowel. For the Q words that do come up as answers, see five-letter words with Q, sorted by how common they are.
Where they do pay
In rarity games they are gold. In Wordillion, a prompt like “contains a Q” with QANAT or QIBLA scores near the top of the scale, plus the wild-letter bonus. The rarest five-letter words page has more like them.
Questions people ask
How many 5-letter words have Q without U?
23 are accepted as Wordle guesses. The most familiar are BURQA, NIQAB, RAFIQ, TALAQ.
Has a Wordle answer ever had Q without U?
No. None of these words has been a Wordle answer and none is on the remaining answer list.
What is the most common English word with Q and no U?
BURQA, then NIQAB and RAFIQ, by how often they appear in written English. Longer examples include QATAR and IRAQ as names, and QWERTY.