Playing Wordle: A Quick Guide

You can find Wordle here on the New York Times website. A fresh puzzle is available each day at midnight according to your local timezone.

To start, guess a word that is five letters long. The game will indicate letters with colors: green for correct letters in the right spots, yellow for correct letters in the wrong spots, and gray for letters not present in the secret word. For more details, check out our comprehensive guide here, as well as my advanced tips here. Additional information can be found at the end of this article, after the hints and answers.

Ready for some hints? Let’s dive in!

Uncommon Letters in Today’s Wordle

Common letters are defined by the phrase used by old typesetters: ETAOIN SHRDLU (remember this phrase!). Imagine it is the name of a friend: “Edwin Shirdloo.”

Today includes two letters from our mnemonic: one is quite common, while another is moderately common, and one is rare.

A Helpful Hint for Today’s Wordle

It’s reminiscent of a bath or a cappuccino.

Double or Repeated Letters in Today’s Wordle

Today’s word contains no repeated letters.

Counting Vowels in Today’s Wordle

There are two vowels, along with one “sometimes” vowel.

Starting Letter of Today’s Wordle

The word begins with the letter F.

Ending Letter of Today’s Wordle

The word concludes with the letter Y.

Solution to Today’s Wordle

Here it is: The answer is FOAMY.

My Approach for Solving Today’s Wordle

The initial guesses were RAISE, TOUCH, and BLAND; although these provided only two letters, it led me to the word FOAMY as the best fit.

Wordle 1,386 4/6

⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟩⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛🟩⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday’s Wordle Answer

Yesterday’s puzzle was trickier. The hint was “whale food,” consisting of four common letters and one uncommon one.

The answer was KRILL.

Understanding Wordle Basics

The goal of Wordle is to identify the day’s secret word. When the game loads, an empty grid awaits your first move: enter any five-letter word.

The revealed colors will provide clues:

• Green: Indicates a correctly guessed letter in the correct position (e.g., guessing PARTY with the actual word being PURSE, results in P and R lighting up green).
• Yellow: Signifies that a letter is present in the word, albeit not in the guessed position (e.g., PARTY vs. ROAST yields R, A, and T as yellow).
• Gray: Shows that the letter does not exist in the solution (if PARTY returns all gray, PURSE and ROAST cannot be the solution).

With this information, continue guessing until you identify the correct word before your attempts run out. You are permitted six guesses in total.

Top Starter Words for Wordle

What should your first guess be? Ideal starting words typically include common letters to enhance your chances of obtaining yellow or green squares. While no single “best” starter exists, the New York Times’ Wordle analysis bot recommends beginning with one of the following:

• CRANE

• TRACE

• SLANT

• CRATE

• CARTE

Additionally, an MIT analysis suggests that beginning with one of these words can maximize the elimination of possibilities:

• SALET

• REAST

• TRACE

• CRATE

• SLATE

Other viable options include ARISE or ROUND. Words like ADIEU and AUDIO introduce more vowels, but emphasizing consonants with a starting word like RENTS or CLAMP might be a more effective strategy. Choose what works best and see how it plays out.

Winning Strategies for Wordle

A range of guides are available for those who take the game seriously. This guide focuses on leveraging consonants, while this one centers on using the most frequent letters. In this advanced guide, multiple approaches are detailed for optimizing your chances of a swift victory.

A key difference between successful Wordle players and those who struggle is that winners effectively utilize their guesses to gather information about the letters in the word. For instance, if you ascertain that the word ends with -OUND, avoid wasting guesses on MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND; instead opt for a combination and try MARSH. If the H lights up yellow, you gain invaluable insight into the solution.

Additionally, note that the original Wordle featured approximately 2,300 solution words. After the acquisition by the NYT, the puzzle themes may now change under a curated list overseen by an editor. Some words might be tricky or topical, such as FEAST being the answer one Thanksgiving. This adds an interesting twist to the game.

Exploring Wordle Alternatives

If five-letter guessing games excite you, consider these top Wordle alternatives, organized by difficulty:

• Wheeldle, which offers a series of puzzles to solve one after another.

• Dordle and Quordle, where you tackle two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles simultaneously using the same guesses. For a more challenging experience, try Octordle for eight puzzles and Sedecordle for sixteen.

• Waffle, which displays several scrambled five-letter words in a grid that you must rearrange until the solution is found.

• Absurdle changes its answer with every guess, but it still maintains consistency with previous feedback. Your goal is to corner the solution down to one possible word.

• Squabble is a competitive version where players face off in real-time. Time penalties apply for lingering too long between guesses, with the last player remaining declared the winner.

• Antiwordle challenges players to avoid correctly guessing the day’s solution. Reusing letters guessed correctly is a requirement, which makes longer play beneficial.