Wordle gives you six guesses to find a five-letter word. Good play is mostly about getting the most information from each guess. This guide uses the Wordrack list of 6,554 five-letter words to show which letters and patterns matter most. When you are stuck, enter your clues into the Wordle helper.
How the colors work
A green tile means the letter is right and in the right place. Yellow means the letter is in the word but in a different place. Gray means the letter is not in the word, or that you have guessed more copies of it than the answer contains.
Which letters are most common
Counting how many five-letter words in our list contain each letter, the most common are E, S, A, R, O, I, L, T, N, in that order. Vowels are spread unevenly. A, O, E and I appear a lot, and E is the most common letter in the last-but-one place. Our list has 1,904 words ending in S, but those are mostly plurals. Wordle answers tend to avoid simple plurals, so do not weigh an S at the end as heavily as the raw numbers suggest.
Pick a good opening word
A strong starter uses five different common letters, including two or three vowels. Popular choices are CRANE, SLATE, STARE, RAISE and ADIEU. Some players open with two words that together cover ten different letters, for example CRANE then SOLID, which test C, R, A, N, E, S, O, L, I and D without repeating any. Whichever you use, stay consistent so you learn how it performs.
Know when a word repeats a letter
About 34% of the five-letter words in our list (2,217) repeat at least one letter, such as ERROR, GEESE or LLAMA. If you are down to few guesses and every clue fits, think about doubles. If you guess a word with two Es and the answer has one, the second E shows gray. That gray tile does not mean E is missing.
Beware of rhyme traps
The danger in Wordle is a pattern where only one letter differs. For example, _ATCH fits 8 words: BATCH, CATCH, HATCH, LATCH, MATCH, NATCH, PATCH, WATCH. _IGHT fits 12: BIGHT, DIGHT, EIGHT, FIGHT, HIGHT, LIGHT, MIGHT, NIGHT. Guessing them one by one can cost you all six turns. Instead, use a guess that tests several of the missing first letters at once, even if the word itself cannot be the answer. A word like BLOWN or CHIMP can separate several of these in one go.
A worked example
Suppose your clues are: A is green in the second spot, E is green in the fifth spot, R is yellow (it is in the word but not third), and C, N, S and T are gray. Entering that into the helper leaves 5 words in our list: EAGRE, PADRE, RAMIE, RAZEE, ZAIRE. From there, pick a word that tests the most remaining letters.
Strategy tips
- Use your second guess to add new letters, not to repeat gray ones.
- In hard mode you must reuse revealed clues, so plan around rhyme traps early.
- If three guesses have gone by and you still have several possible words, spend one on a word that splits them rather than guessing blindly.
- Browse the lists by first letter or last letter when you know one end of the word.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best first word in Wordle?
There is no single best word, but words with five different common letters and two or three vowels, such as CRANE, SLATE or STARE, work well.
Do Wordle answers repeat letters?
Yes, some do. Words such as ABBEY or ERROR have doubled letters, so keep them in mind when your clues fit.
Is using a Wordle helper cheating?
That is up to you. Many players use a helper to learn patterns or to check a stuck puzzle after trying on their own.