Wordle gives you 6 guesses to find a 5-letter word. Most players finish in 4. Consistent solvers finish in 3. The difference is a system — which starting words you use and how you eliminate letters efficiently.
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How Wordle Works (Quick Recap)
You guess a 5-letter word. Each letter gets coloured:
- Green — correct letter, correct position
- Yellow — correct letter, wrong position
- Grey — letter not in the word
Six guesses to find the word. The daily puzzle resets at midnight. The game tracks your streak.
Why Your Starting Word Matters Most
Your first guess eliminates the most letters when it's chosen for coverage, not familiarity. A starting word should:
- Use 5 different letters (no repeated letters — you're wasting a position)
- Cover the most common letters in English 5-letter words
- Test multiple vowels
Best starting words:
CRANE — covers C, R, A, N, E. Tests two of the most common vowels and three high-frequency consonants. Statistically one of the strongest openers.
SLATE — covers S, L, A, T, E. S and T appear frequently at the start and end of words.
AUDIO — covers four vowels (A, U, D, I, O). Use this as your second guess if your first returned mostly grey — instantly maps all vowel positions.
AROSE — covers A, R, O, S, E. High-frequency letters, all different.
Pick one starter and stick with it. Consistency beats variety because you always know exactly what your first guess rules out.
Guess 2: Eliminate, Don't Guess
Your second guess should maximise new letter coverage — not try to solve the word.
Common mistake: Seeing a green A in position 3 and immediately guessing words that fit. Too early. You have 4 unknown letters and limited information.
Better approach: Use guess 2 to test 5 more letters you haven't tried yet. If CRANE returned all grey, SPLIT eliminates S, P, L, I, T. Now after 2 guesses you've tested 10 letters and know which are in the word.
Only start guessing the specific word from guess 3 onward — when you have enough green and yellow letters to narrow the candidates significantly.
How to Use Yellow Letters
Yellow means the letter is in the word — just not in that position. This is where players lose time.
Wrong: Seeing yellow R in position 2, then guessing a word with R in position 2 again. You already know that doesn't work.
Right: Yellow R in position 2 means R is somewhere in positions 1, 3, 4, or 5. Every subsequent guess must have R in one of those positions.
Track yellow letters mentally as "must appear, not here." Use them to filter candidates rather than ignoring them.
Hard Mode vs Normal Mode
Normal mode: You can guess any valid word on every turn, even if it ignores known green/yellow letters. This lets you use guess 3 or 4 as a pure elimination guess even when you know some positions.
Hard mode: Every guess must use all known green and yellow letters. This is harder because you can't sacrifice a guess for elimination — every guess must be a real attempt.
Normal mode gives you more flexibility. If you're stuck between multiple candidates (e.g., _IGHT could be LIGHT, NIGHT, RIGHT, SIGHT, TIGHT), a normal-mode elimination guess rules out 3–4 of them at once.
The Common Letter Frequency
Letters that appear most often in Wordle answers (roughly in order):
Vowels: E, A, O, I, U
Consonants: R, S, T, N, L, H, D, C
Your starting word should hit as many of these as possible. CRANE covers E, A, R, N, C — 5 of the top 10.
Letters that almost never appear: Q, X, Z, J — don't test these early.
Solving Efficiently: A 3-Guess Example
Target word: BRAVE
Guess 1: CRANE → C(grey), R(yellow), A(yellow), N(grey), E(grey)
— R and A are in the word, not in positions 3 and 4. C, N, E are out.
Guess 2: SPLIT → S(grey), P(grey), L(grey), I(grey), T(grey)
— S, P, L, I, T are all out. Now we know R and A are in the word, and 9 letters are eliminated.
Guess 3: BRAVE → B(green), R(green), A(green), V(green), E(green) ✓
— Using R in position 2 and A in position 3, narrowed to BRAVE.
When You're Stuck
If you reach guess 4 or 5 with multiple valid candidates, think about which guess eliminates the most possibilities rather than which guess might be correct. One elimination guess on guess 5 is better than two wrong specific guesses on 5 and 6.
Practice
The daily puzzle gives you one shot per day — but unlimited mode lets you play as many rounds as you want. Run 5–10 unlimited games with the same starting word to build pattern recognition.
Play daily + unlimited free: Wordle Online
Related Games
- Sudoku — number deduction with similar constraint elimination
- Minesweeper — logic under uncertainty
- Hangman — letter-by-letter word deduction
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