All the tips and tricks you could need to succeed at 'Wordle' (2024)

All the tips and tricks you could need to succeed at 'Wordle' (1)

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Are you still puzzled by all those tweets adorned with grids of gray, yellow, and green boxes? Or have you finally tried Wordle?

The daily word puzzle that's become a viral sensation thanks to its inherent simplicity and eye-catching (and widely embraced) share feature feels like it's here to stay, at least for a while. Yeah, it's buzzy. But it's also a delightful little brain warm-up for your day that pretty much anyone who reads and writes in English can sit down and play.

Now personally, my preferred way to play — this, and really any other game — is to just jump in and figure stuff out on my own time. But not all of us have time to spare, or approach things in the same way. Games are for everyone, period. So if you've been having trouble getting a handle on Wordle, here are some helpful tips and tricks that may make the going a little easier.

1. Start out strong

I like to think of Wordle as a neat little mash-up of the New York Times crossword puzzle and Wheel of Fortune. It's not as hard as the NYT's daily challenge, but it's still a shared experience where every new day brings the same puzzle for every player. That Wheel of Fortune layer is just as key, though; you want a good spread of commonly used letters in every guess, because the more green or yellow results you get, the closer you are to solving the puzzle.

Since your first Wordle guess of the day can be literally any five-letter word, make it a good one. Words with repeated letters can be the answer for the day, but they're not a great place to start since ruling out the most common letters makes your subsequent guesses easier. Leave words like "added" or "melee" for moments when you think the answer might actually be that. Start instead with words where every letter is unique, and preferably ones that have more than one vowel.

There are those that feel strongly about starting off every day with a specific word because of its spread of vowels. That kind of approach takes some of the fun out of this whole exercise for me. I prefer more of a free association approach where whatever 5-letter word I think of first is my initial guess (so long as it's free of repeating letters). All that said, "ADIEU" is a great place to start because it's so dense with vowels. But the same could be said for any other words that's got at least three vowels: PIANO, ABOUT, OCEAN, EQUAL, OUIJA, and NOISY (among many others) are all solid choices.

2. Pay attention to every clue

The only bad guess in Wordle is one that doesn't heed the clues that preceded it. The yellow and green boxes we want to see with each guess are vital, of course — they're the key clues we use to solve the puzzle. But the greyed out letters are equally important. If your first guess makes it clear that R, S, and T aren't in the day's word, using any of those letters in a subsequent guess is basically throwing that guess away.

Take note of the virtual keyboard at the bottom of each day's puzzle. As you make your guesses, the keys on the keyboard are marked to reflect what you've guessed. So it's very easy to see at a glance which letters are still in play. Take advantage of that at every opportunity and you'll be better set up for success.

3. Words can have two of the same letter

While it's a bad idea to start with words where the same letter appears more than once, it's important to remember that such words can be the day's solution. Once you've got a few letters figured out and start to narrow down the possible answers, don't be afraid to drop in a guess with recurring letters if you think it fits.

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Even if you're wrong, Wordle will tell you — using the same yellow/green clue scheme — if the second occurrence of whichever letter is in the word. So if the day's answer is "APPLE" and you already know for sure there's one "P" in it, a guess like "PAPER" that includes two Ps will mark both of those letters as yellow and green, respectively.

4. If all else fails, Google is your friend

Some might call it cheating, but everyone should play the games they want to play in whatever way works best for them. If you want help with the day's Wordle puzzle for whatever reason, you can search the internet for some gentle assistance without having to look up the whole solution.

Play Wordle as normal when you're starting out and make a guess. Then, using the clues gleaned from your first guess, ask Google for some suggestions. Let's say you went with "PIANO" to start things off, and the P and I happen to be in the right spot. You can search "five-letter words that start with PI" and you'll get a bunch of lists in your results. You can re-jigger that search around whatever clues you get — "five letter words with A and Y in them" or "five letter words ending in OY," for example — and most of the time your search results will lead to helpful destinations.

For my own Wordle good times, those kinds of searches undermine the fun that Wordle offers and the satisfaction of solving its puzzle. But not everyone is wired the same way! Just remember: There's no wrong way to play this or any other game, and there's no shame at all in looking for help, whatever your reasons might be.

5. Screenshot and alt-text your shares

This isn't so much a tip for playing Wordle better as it is some advice for participating in the community and online watercooler chatter that's unfolded around the game so far. Wardle's "Share" feature copies a spoiler-free results page to your clipboard as emojis laid out in a grid for you to paste into a post on your social platform of choice.

There's just one problem with that: Not everyone on social media can physically see the posts, and screen readers aren't the best at making emoji aurally legible. What I do instead is paste the Share content into an empty Twitter post and then screenshot just that part of the screen (Mac users can do this natively; as a Windows user, the open-source app Greenshot is my go-to). Then I delete the results from my draft post and drop in the screenshot, which (on Twitter, at least) supports the addition of screen reader-friendly alt-text.

You should be adding alt-text any time you're posting a screenshot on Twitter. But it's especially useful for sharing inherently visual Wordle results.

6. Use the same browser every day

There's no sign-in for Wordle; it tracks your ongoing progress using cookies. So if continuity is important — the game automatically tracks how many times you've played and how many rounds it took you each time — you'll want to make sure you're using the same computer/device and browser to play every day. You'll also want to avoid playing in Incognito/Private browser windows.

Likewise, if you regularly clear out cookies or you've automated the clearing of cookies, you may want to create an exception for Wordle's cookies if you don't want to lose its built-in performance tracking.

7. Don't overlook the gear icon

Wordle is incredibly self-explanatory and simple to pick up and play. But! There is a settings page, and you can change a few things about your playing experience in there. I'm a big fan of the Dark Theme, which replaces the all-white background with an all-black background.

There's also Hard Mode, which requires every guess to account for the clues you've picked up so far. If you've got three letters figured out, you'll have to use all of those letters in subsequent guesses. That's a good practice anyway for solving a Wordle in as few rounds as possible. But Hard Mode makes it a requirement. A separate Color Blind Mode is also one of the options, and its use of high-contrast colors can be easier to read for that subset of players.

8. Don't let anyone tell you how to play

This advice really applies to any big game of the moment: However you choose to play, it's the right way. Don't let social media trolls discourage you from sharing your favorite tips, preferred starting words, or whatever else. Trolls gonna troll. Just enjoy the game, block the idiots, and get on with your day.

One caveat, though: There's no defense for spoiling the day's puzzle. Wordle's results sharing feature is great exactly because it communicates everything any fellow player would need to know about your successes or failures without giving away the whole game. Let people have their fun.

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All the tips and tricks you could need to succeed at 'Wordle' (2)

Adam Rosenberg

Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.

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All the tips and tricks you could need to succeed at 'Wordle' (2024)

FAQs

What is the #1 best word to start with in Wordle? ›

According to WordsRated's analysis, the best starting words for Wordle are CRANE (based on all available solutions) and SAUCY (based on remaining solutions as of Feb, 2024). For Normal mode, SLATE, SALET, ROATE and STARE are known to be some of the best alternative starting words for Wordle.

What are some hints to help solve Wordle? ›

But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.

What are the 5 words for the Wordle trick? ›

Here are the 5 "Magic" Words that will help you solve Wordle more often than not. "Derby, flank, ghost, winch, jumps."

What is the best strategy in Wordle? ›

Use A Word With Many Vowels

Since there are five vowels in the alphabet, being able to determine whether they are used in a Wordle puzzle drastically gives players better odds. As such, more experienced puzzle players realized it may help to find words that use as many vowels as possible as their first guess.

What 5 words use all 25 letters? ›

Find 5 letter words with 25 distinct characters
  • brick.
  • glent.
  • jumpy.
  • vozhd.
  • waqfs.
Feb 6, 2022

What is a burner word in Wordle? ›

As I mentioned above, a burner word is a word you guess in Wordle (that you know is not the right answer) that you use to eliminate, or guess, several letters at a time.

Has anyone solve Wordle in one try? ›

The odds of solving a Wordle level in one try is 0.02% on average and is completely down to chance. The odds of solving a Wordle level in two tries is 5.67% on average. The odds of solving a Wordle level in three tries is 22.66% on average. The odds of solving a Wordle level in four tries is 33.10% on average.

What is the trick for the Wordle solver? ›

Looking broadly at the data, most players seem to choose a word with at least two vowels that contains at least one letter from their first guess. Some solvers may prefer a start with two words, which we know because popular starting words like AUDIO, STARE and TRAIN appear in the top 20 second guesses as well.

What is the most common answer in Wordle? ›

Over 15% of Wordle's words of the day start with S. Only six other starting letters appear in more than 5% of Wordle words. In order of frequency, they are C, B, T, P, A, and F. These starting letters might seem pretty surprising, but they are close to the order of general five-letter words.

How to instantly win Wordle? ›

Here's what to do: Guess LIGHT, CANDY, POWER, and BUMFS. That's four guesses with 20 unique letters, including all five vowels. At that point—after only a few seconds of typing—you're pretty much guaranteed to know all the letters in the winning word.

What is the secret word game in Wordle? ›

Secret Word is a mini-game in WORDLE! where you guess what the word is by using the clue word and letters provided. Correct guesses become the next clue. Players have 3 chances to guess correctly during each round.

What are the five magic words? ›

The Singapore Kindness Movements adopts the principle of teaching children proper manners from a very young age, preschoolers are encouraged to use five magic words 'Please. ' 'Thank you', 'You're welcome', 'Excuse me' and 'Sorry'.

How to master Wordle? ›

Wordle is a lot like Wheel of Fortune in that it's best to start with the more common consonants first to help solve it. Try using words that have S, T, R, N, or other popular non-vowels. If you're using a lot of different letters in your first couple of guesses, it makes solving the puzzle a little easier.

What is the #1 best first word for Wordle? ›

Officially, the best Wordle starting word is SLATE. I say 'officially', because SLATE is the choice of WordleBot, an AI tool designed by the New York Times to help you improve your Wordle game. WordleBot rates SLATE as 99/100 for skill, the highest score it awards.

What is the most useful word in Wordle? ›

The Best Starting Words for Wordle
  • adieu.
  • odium.
  • shade.
  • resin.
  • alert.
  • haunt.
  • orate.
  • media.

What is the best 5 letter word for Wordle? ›

Common Five-letter Words for Wordle, List 2
  • cheer.
  • pause.
  • legal.
  • plate.
  • error.
  • smash.
  • trade.
  • burst.

What is the best second word in Wordle? ›

If we don't need to restrict our second guess to those words that are consistent with the first guess and the first-guess pattern, then it turns out that “berry” is an optimum second guess since it produces 11 non-zero patterns, better than “beard” with only 9 non-zero patterns.

What 5 letter word has the most vowels? ›

What Is a 5-Letter Word With the Most Vowel? Vowels in the English language include “a,” “e,” “i,” “o,” and “u.” Surprisingly, if you combine them, you'll get the 5-letter word with the most vowel — iouea. And, yes, it's a real word, albeit rarely used.

What is the very first Wordle word? ›

When did Wordle start? Wordle started as a humble independent game played only among friends and family of developer Josh Wardle in June 2021 (the first answer was "Cigar").

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