Understanding How to Play Wordle

The game of Wordle can be found here on the New York Times website. Each day, a new puzzle becomes available at midnight in your local time zone.

To begin, guess a five-letter word. The letters will highlight in three colors: green for correct letters in the right spot, yellow for correct letters in the wrong location, and gray for letters not included in the target word. For further insights, check out this guide on playing Wordle and my strategy tips here for more experience. More information can also be found at the end of this article after the hints and answers.

Are you ready for some hints? Let’s dive in!

Are There Any Uncommon Letters in Today’s Wordle?

Common letters are defined by the old typesetters’ phrase ETAOIN SHRDLU. (Memorize it! It sounds like “Edwin Shirdloo,” imagine he’s a buddy.)

Today’s puzzle includes four usual letters from our mnemonic, along with a fifth that is also relatively common.

Can You Provide a Hint for Today’s Wordle?

This word may sound loud or jarring.

Are There Any Repeated Letters in Today’s Wordle?

No letters are repeated in today’s word.

How Many Vowels Are Present in Today’s Wordle?

The word contains a single vowel.

What Is the First Letter of Today’s Wordle?

Today’s word commences with the letter C.

What Is the Last Letter of Today’s Wordle?

The word concludes with H.

What Is Today’s Wordle Solution?

Ready for the reveal? The word is CLASH.

My Approach to Solving Today’s Wordle

Initial guesses of RAISE and TOUCH led me to the one remaining solution of CLASH.

Wordle 1,407 3/6

⬛🟨⬛🟩⬛
⬛⬛⬛🟨🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday’s Wordle Solution

The puzzle from yesterday posed a moderate challenge. The clue was “recognized or understood”, and the solution included three common letters alongside two less common ones.

Yesterday’s answer was KNOWN.

A Quick Guide to Wordle Basics

The objective in Wordle is to uncover the mystery word of the day. Upon starting the game, an empty grid will appear, waiting for your initial move: guess any five-letter word.

Utilize the revealed colors for clues: Green indicates a correct letter in the correct spot, Yellow suggests a correct letter in the wrong position, and Gray means the letter is not in the secret word at all.

• Green: You guessed a letter correctly and placed it in the right position. (For instance, if you guessed PARTY but the actual word is PURSE, P and R will appear in green.)

• Yellow: The letter exists in the word, but it’s not in the position you guessed. (E.g., guess PARTY, and if the solution is ROAST, R, A, and T will show as yellow.)

• Gray: The letter is not part of the answer. (If PARTY results in all gray, then the answer can’t be PURSE or ROAST.)

With this understanding, keep guessing other words to uncover the solution before your attempts run out. You have six tries total.

Top Starter Words for Wordle

What should be used for the first guess? Optimal starters usually comprise common letters to boost your chances of uncovering yellow and green squares, which can guide your subsequent guesses. While there isn’t a “best” first word, the New York Times’s Wordle analysis bot recommends starting with one of these options:

• CRANE

• TRACE

• SLANT

• CRATE

• CARTE

Moreover, an MIT study found that starting with words such as:

• SALET

• REAST

• TRACE

• CRATE

• SLATE

helps eliminate more possible words right off the bat. Other effective words include ARISE and ROUND. While words like ADIEU and AUDIO introduce more vowels, beginning with a focus on consonants using options like RENTS or CLAMP may offer an advantage. Choose your strategy wisely and determine the best approach for you.

Winning Strategies for Wordle

Several guides on Wordle strategy can be beneficial for those keen on mastering the game. Refer to this guide that emphasizes using consonants strategically, or this guide that emphasizes leveraging the most frequently occurring letters. In this advanced approach, detailed strategies for gathering hints while maximizing your chances of quick wins are outlined.

The primary distinction between successful Wordle players and those who struggle is that winners utilize their guesses to derive insights about the letters present in the word. If it’s determined that the word ends in -OUND, don’t waste multiple guesses on MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND; combine those consonants and guess MARSH. If H appears yellow, you’re one step closer to the answer.

Another aspect worth mentioning: the original Wordle featured roughly 2,300 potential solutions, but since its acquisition by the NYT, the game now includes an editor curating the answers. This means the words can sometimes be trickier or more topical. For example, FEAST was an answer during Thanksgiving. Keeping this in mind can provide strategic insights about themes.

Exploring Alternatives to Wordle

If you find five-letter guessing games irresistible, explore some of the top Wordle alternatives, categorized by their difficulty levels:

• Wheeldle offers a continuous puzzle experience.

• Dordle and Quordle require players to solve two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles simultaneously with shared guesses. There’s also Octordle with eight puzzles and Sedecordle with sixteen.

• Waffle presents scrambled five-letter words arranged in a grid, and players solve them by strategically rearranging the letters.

• Absurdle offers a unique twist, changing the answer after each guess while remaining consistent with previous clues. The goal is to corner it until only one possible word remains, and win upon guessing it.

• Squabble allows players to compete against others in a timed version of Wordle, where taking too long can result in damage; the survivor wins.

• Antiwordle flips the script by encouraging players to avoid guessing the day’s solution. Correctly guessing letters requires reusing them, making longer attempts beneficial.