Understanding How to Play Wordle

You can find Wordle here on the New York Times website. Each day at midnight in your local timezone, a fresh puzzle is published.

Your first move involves selecting a five-letter word as your guess. The feedback you receive involves colors: letters turning green indicate a correct letter in the right position, yellow signifies the letter is correct but placed incorrectly, and gray if the letter is absent from today’s mystery word. For additional insights, check our Wordle playing guide here, as well as this advanced strategy guide here. More details follow after hints and the answer.

Let’s jump into the hints!

Uncommon Letters in Today’s Wordle

Common letters are defined based on the age-old typesetting mnemonic ETAOIN SHRDLU. (Memorizing this is beneficial! Pronounce it as “Edwin Shirdloo,” as if he’s a familiar acquaintance.)

All these characters fall under the category of commonly used letters.

Hint for Today’s Wordle

It’s something that didn’t occur.

Double Letters in Today’s Wordle

Today features one letter that repeats.

Vowel Count in Today’s Wordle

There’s a single vowel that appears twice.

Starting Letter of Today’s Wordle

The word initiates with the letter S.

Ending Letter of Today’s Wordle

The word concludes with the letter D.

Today’s Wordle Solution

Here it is: the answer is STOOD.

My Approach to Today’s Wordle

Initially, I tried RAISE and TOUCH, followed by PLANT, aiming to rule out probable consonants. STOOD emerged as one of the words that fit the clues I had.

Wordle 1,398 4/6

Yesterday’s Wordle Answer

Yesterday’s puzzle posed a medium level of difficulty. The hint suggested “a type of support,” comprised of four commonly used letters and one that is fairly common. The solution was MORAL.

Basic Overview of Wordle

The primary goal in Wordle is to identify the concealed word of the day. Upon launching the game, players will see a grid awaiting letters. The first action lies with you: guess a five-letter word.

Utilize the color-coded feedback to deduce the correct letters: Green denotes a correct letter in the correct slot. For instance, guessing PARTY when the word is PURSE would color P and R green.

• Yellow indicates the letter is present in the word but is not correctly positioned. For example, if PARTY is guessed but the correct word is ROAST, then R, A, and T will display as yellow.

• Gray signifies the letter is absent from the final word. If PARTY yields gray results, the solution cannot be PURSE or ROAST.

After interpreting the feedback, make your next guess, striving to find the correct answer before exhausting your attempts. There are six guesses allowed before the game concludes.

Optimal Starter Words for Wordle

What should your initial guess be? The most effective starters usually contain familiar letters, enhancing the chances of acquiring both yellow and green feedback. If you end up with all grays from common letters, that’s still valuable insight to help eliminate options. While there isn’t a definitive “best” word to start with, analyses from the New York Times’s Wordle analysis bot recommend beginning with the following:

• CRANE
• TRACE
• SLANT
• CRATE
• CARTE

Furthermore, an MIT study revealed that starting with words like these will maximize the number of eliminated possibilities in the first round:

• SALET
• REAST
• TRACE
• CRATE
• SLATE

Other solid options include ARISE or ROUND. While words like ADIEU and AUDIO introduce more vowels, there’s an argument for prioritizing consonants by opting for starters like RENTS or CLAMP. Choose your approach and see what works best for you.

Strategies for Success in Wordle

Numerous strategies to successfully play Wordle exist, and exploring these can benefit dedicated players. One strategy focuses on leveraging consonants effectively, while another emphasizes the usage of frequently appearing letters. Additionally, this advanced guide outlines a three-step approach for uncovering clues while optimizing your chances for a swift victory.

The distinguishing factor between winning and losing often lies in how well the players gather information from their guesses. For example, if you know the word ends with -OUND, don’t waste guesses on MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND; instead, look for combinations in your guessing, such as MARSH. If an H lights up yellow, that’s crucial information.

It’s also worth noting that the original Wordle featured an array of approximately 2,300 solution words. However, after being acquired by the NYT, the game now has an editor curating the solutions, resulting in occasionally tricky or thematic words. For instance, FEAST was the answer on Thanksgiving. Thus, be mindful of potential themes.

Alternatives to Wordle

If five-letter word games have captured your interest, explore the top Wordle alternatives, which include:

• Wheeldle, where you can play consecutive puzzles

• Dordle and Quordle, which have players solving two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles simultaneously using the same guesses. Other options include Octordle, featuring eight puzzles, and Sedecordle with sixteen.

• Waffle, where you swap letters around in a grid until you solve multiple five-letter words.

• Absurdle, which changes its solution with each guess, while staying consistent with past feedback, challenging players to strategically narrow down options until one single word remains.

• Squabble, which enables users to compete against others in real-time, risking damage for taking too long during guesses; the last one standing wins.

• Antiwordle, where the goal is to avoid guessing the solution, forcing players to reuse any letters guessed correctly, making it a challenge to take longer to win.