Wordle became a phenomenon in late 2021 because it nailed one specific thing: one puzzle per day, shared with everyone, solvable in minutes. No levels, no lives, no monetization. Just a word, six tries, and the satisfaction of cracking it before the day ends.
You can play a free version of the daily word puzzle at the Wordle game — new word every day, no account required.
The rules in one paragraph
You have 6 attempts to guess a 5-letter word. After each guess, every letter gets colored:
- Green — correct letter, correct position
- Yellow — correct letter, wrong position
- Gray — letter not in the word at all
Use the colors to eliminate possibilities and zero in on the answer.
A worked example
Say the word is CRANE. You guess SLATE first.
S → gray (no S in CRANE)
L → gray (no L)
A → yellow (A is in CRANE, but not position 3)
T → gray (no T)
E → green (E is in position 5 — correct)
Second guess: TRACE
T → gray (still no T)
R → green (R is in position 2)
A → green (A is in position 3)
C → green (C is in position 4)
E → green (E in position 5)
Third guess: CRANE — all green. Solved in 3.
Strategy: how to pick your opening word
Your first guess should maximize information. You want to cover the most common English letters in one shot. Good starting words:
- CRANE — covers C, R, A, N, E (five of the top 10 most frequent letters)
- SLATE — S, L, A, T, E
- AUDIO — hits all five vowels except E
- STARE — S, T, A, R, E
Avoid words with repeated letters in your first guess. Guessing BOOST wastes a slot — you could test two different letters instead of confirming one.
How to use yellow tiles
A yellow tile is just as valuable as a green one — it tells you the letter is in the word and rules out its current position. Don't ignore yellows.
If A comes up yellow in position 2 on your first guess, your next guess should:
- Contain A somewhere (it's in the word)
- Not have A in position 2 (it doesn't belong there)
Players who ignore yellow tiles tend to repeat the same position for that letter, which wastes a guess.
The daily puzzle
The word changes every day at midnight, synced to the calendar date. Everyone playing on the same day is solving the same word. That's the reason people share their results — the green/yellow/gray grid pattern is a spoiler-free way to compare how many guesses it took without revealing the answer.
Your result is saved for the day. If you close the tab and come back, the board picks up where you left off.
What happens if you don't solve it
The word is revealed if you use all 6 guesses without finding it. There's no penalty — just the quiet frustration of seeing an answer that seemed obvious in hindsight. A new puzzle is available the next day.
Keyboard support
You can type directly on your physical keyboard. Press Enter to submit a guess, Backspace to delete the last letter. The on-screen keyboard also shows color feedback as you go — letters you've already eliminated turn gray, helping you avoid reusing them.
The full free Wordle game is live at Ultimate Tools — daily puzzle, 6 attempts, no signup. Other word and logic games on the same site: Hangman and Sudoku.
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