How to Play Wordle — Strategy Guide for Beginners to Experts
Wordle is a daily 5-letter word-guessing game by Josh Wardle, now owned by The New York Times. Six guesses; green tiles mean the letter is correct and in the right position; yellow means the letter is in the word but in the wrong position; grey means the letter isn’t in the word at all. Same puzzle for everyone globally each day. If you’ve been losing on day 4 and want to start winning consistently, here’s a complete strategy guide.
The opening word: where most people go wrong
Your first guess should not be a real word you like. It should be a word optimised to test the most common letters in English. The 5 most common letters in 5-letter English words are E, A, R, O, T. The most common consonants beyond that are S, L, N, I.
The mathematically optimal opening word, by 3Blue1Brown’s analysis: SALET (an archaic word for a helmet). It tests S, A, L, E, T — five of the six most common letters. It almost always reveals 2-3 green or yellow tiles.
Other strong opening words: SLATE, CRANE, TRACE, STARE, ROATE. Pick one and use it every day. Consistency teaches your brain to read the feedback faster.
The second word: maximize information
After your opening, you’ll know roughly 5 letters’ worth of info. The temptation is to guess a word that uses your greens — don’t. Use your second guess to test more letters.
If you opened with SLATE and got back: S (grey), L (grey), A (yellow), T (grey), E (green), your second word should test six new letters. Try CROUD or BRINK. Now you’ve tested 10 letters in 2 guesses, leaving you 4 guesses to actually solve the puzzle.
This is called vowel-first strategy. Even competitive Wordle players use it: spend the first 2 guesses on information, the last 4 on solutions.
Hard mode: when greens are mandatory
Wordle’s “hard mode” requires you to reuse any greens and yellows you’ve revealed. This actually makes the game harder strategically because you can’t use your second guess for pure exploration.
If you play hard mode, your opening word matters more — pick one with no repeating letters and high information density. SALET, SLATE, and CRANE are all great. Avoid words with double letters like LLAMA or APPLE.
Endgame: when you have all the letters
You’ll often reach guess 4 or 5 with all five correct letters but in the wrong order. This is called an “anagram trap.” There are sometimes only 2-3 possible arrangements; with 2 guesses left, try the rarest ending first (-NY, -LY, -ER, -ED).
The trick is to enumerate: write down (mentally) every possible order. If you have R, A, T, O, E and know they’re all in the word, possible solutions: RATIO, RATIO, OATER, OPERA — narrow by which letters are green vs. yellow.
Why some days are unsolvable
NYT word list contains 2,309 “solution” words but the “valid guess” list has ~12,000 words. Sometimes the answer is a word you’ve never seen (PARER, AROID, etc.) and there’s literally no way to deduce it.
If you’re stuck after guess 5 with 3-4 letters known, the move is: play any valid word, even nonsense to reveal more letters. A lost streak is recoverable; a missed information opportunity is not.
Statistics: what counts as good?
Casual players average around 3.9 guesses per win, 85% win rate. Strong players average 3.5 guesses, 95% win rate. World-class players (like the NYT’s Wordle bot which solves any word in 3.42 average) max out around 3.4.
Where to play Wordle
Official: NYT Wordle. Daily puzzle, free, same word for everyone.
Our version: Wordle on dinogame.gg. Plays exactly the same rules, but with a randomly-chosen word each game so you can play unlimited times to practice.
For more daily word puzzles, see our games like Wordle roundup.
