Understanding How to Play Wordle

The game of Wordle is hosted here on the New York Times website. Every day, a new puzzle drops at midnight based on your local time zone.

To begin, guess a word consisting of five letters. Upon submitting your guess, letters will change colors: green for correctly placed letters, yellow for correct letters in the wrong position, and gray for letters not included in the day’s hidden word. For a more comprehensive overview, refer to our detailed guide here, as well as this strategy guide for advanced tips. Additional context can be found towards the end of this article, after the clues and answers.

Excited for the hints? Let’s get into it!

Are There Any Uncommon Letters in Today’s Wordle?

For our reference, common letters can be identified using the old typesetter’s term ETAOIN SHRDLU. (Memorizing this can be helpful! Imagine a friend by the name of Edwin Shirdloo.)

These letters are considered standard according to our mnemonic.

Could You Provide a Hint for Today’s Wordle?

Think of colors like amber or silver, for instance.

Does Today’s Wordle Include Any Repeated Letters?

There are no repeated letters in today’s word.

How Many Vowels Are Present in Today’s Wordle?

This word contains two vowels.

What Letter Does Today’s Wordle Begin With?

The initial letter of today’s word is A.

What Letter Does Today’s Wordle Conclude With?

Today’s word finishes with T.

What is Today’s Wordle Solution?

Are you ready? Today’s answer is ALERT.

My Approach to Solving Today’s Wordle

My guesses began with RAISE then transitioned to BLEND, eventually leading to CLEAR as a plausible answer. This left ALERT as the only potential match.

Wordle 1,356 4/6

🟨🟨⬛⬛🟨
⬛🟩🟩⬛⬛
⬛🟩🟩🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Answer for Yesterday’s Wordle

The puzzle from yesterday was simpler. The hint given was “may be found in a workplace or at a sports event,” and the solution included three common letters alongside two relatively frequent ones.

Yesterday’s Wordle solution was SCRUM.

Introduction to Wordle Basics

The objective of Wordle is to identify the chosen word for the day. Upon entering the game, players will find an empty grid waiting for their first guess: any five-letter word.

Utilize the revealed colors to gather information: Green denotes a letter that is both correct and in the right spot. (For instance, guessing PARTY when the actual word is PURSE will highlight P and R in green.)

• Yellow indicates that the letter exists in the word, but is not in the position you guessed. (If you guessed PARTY but the word is ROAST, R, A, and T will appear yellow.)

• Gray signifies that the letter is absent from the solution. (If you guessed PARTY and all letters are gray, then the answer cannot possibly be PURSE or ROAST.)

With this knowledge, make additional guesses, aiming to identify the word before exhausting your six attempts.

Optimal Starter Words for Wordle

What should your initial guess be? The most effective starters usually comprise commonly used letters, enhancing the likelihood of achieving yellow and green squares to refine your subsequent guesses. Although there is no definitive “best” starting word, the New York Times’s Wordle analysis bot suggests you consider one of these:

• CRANE

• TRACE

• SLANT

• CRATE

• CARTE

Additionally, an MIT study identified that using the words below can help eliminate the most options during your first guess:

• SALET

• REAST

• TRACE

• CRATE

• SLATE

Other strong contenders include ARISE or ROUND. While words like ADIEU and AUDIO introduce more vowels into the game, starting with a focus on consonants, such as RENTS or CLAMP, may yield better outcomes. Experiment with different approaches and see what works best.

Winning Strategies for Wordle

For those serious about mastering Wordle, several strategies can enhance gameplay; for instance, this guide explains the advantages of consonants, while another one emphasizes utilizing the most common letters. In this advanced guide, three effective techniques are detailed to facilitate extracting hints while optimizing your chances of winning quickly.

A key feature that distinguishes successful Wordle players from those who struggle is that successful ones leverage their guesses to glean insights about which letters are present. For example, if you determine that the word must end in -OUND, don’t waste four attempts on MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND; combine your consonants for a guess like MARSH. If H lights up yellow, you’re closer to the answer.

Additionally, a note on tactics: the original Wordle used around 2,300 solution words; after its acquisition by the NYT, the game now has an editor curating the solutions. Sometimes, a slightly tricky word may be chosen that wouldn’t have made it onto the initial list, and occasionally, there may be a timely theme, such as FEAST being the solution during Thanksgiving.

Alternative Wordle Style Games

If five-letter guessing games appeal to you, the top Wordle alternatives, ranked in terms of difficulty include:

• Wheeldle, which enables continuous play

• Dordle and Quordle, where players must tackle two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles simultaneously using the same guesses. There’s also Octordle, featuring eight puzzles, and Sedecordle, with 16.

• Waffle, where players rearrange scrambled five-letter words within a grid to solve the game.

• Absurdle, which changes the solution after each guess while adhering to previous clues. Players must efficiently narrow the options to a single word, which results in victory.

• Squabble challenges players to compete against others in Wordle under timed conditions, incurring damage for excessive wait times between guesses; the last player standing emerges victorious.

• Antiwordle has a unique twist: players aim to avoid guessing the day’s solution. You must reuse any correctly guessed letters, making a longer guessing period advantageous in the game.