How to Play Wordle: Best Starting Words & Tips

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 want to learn how to play Wordle well and start winning consistently, here’s a complete strategy guide. And when you need a break from letters, the Chrome Dino game is one keypress away.

Key takeaways

You get six tries to find one hidden five-letter word; every guess must be a real word.
Green means right letter, right spot; yellow means right letter, wrong spot; grey means not in the word.
Open with a word full of common letters, then use guess two to test five new ones.
When several words still fit, a guess that tests their differences beats guessing them one by one.

Wordle rules in 60 seconds

The whole game fits in five steps:

Type a five-letter word and press Enter. It has to be in the game’s word list; made-up strings are rejected and don’t cost you a guess.
Read the tiles. Each letter turns green, yellow or grey.
Use the on-screen keyboard as your notepad. It colors each letter you’ve tried, so you can see at a glance what’s left.
Guess again, using what you’ve learned.
Win by turning all five tiles green within six guesses. Miss on guess six and the game shows you the answer.

Tile	What it means	What to do next
Green	Right letter, right position	Keep it in that slot (or use the slot to test other letters in normal mode)
Yellow	Letter is in the word, but not in this position	Move it somewhere else
Grey	Letter is not in the word (or not an extra copy of it)	Stop using it

How double letters work

This is the rule that trips up most beginners. The answer can contain the same letter twice, as in APPLE or SHEEP. Greens are marked first, then yellows, and each letter in the answer only counts once. So if you guess a word with two E’s and the answer has one E, only one of your E’s lights up and the other turns grey. That grey means “no second E”, not “no E at all”.

One puzzle a day

The official Wordle has one answer per day, the same for every player, and a new puzzle arrives at midnight in your local time. If you’re curious about the details, we explain whether Wordle is the same everywhere.

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. In Wordle’s answer list, the most common letters are E, A, R, O and T, followed closely by L, I, S and N.

The mathematically optimal opening word, by 3Blue1Brown’s analysis: SALET (an archaic word for a helmet). It tests S, A, L, E and T, all among the most common letters in the answer list. For more options, see our list of the best Wordle starting words.

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 five new letters. Try BRINK or CHOMP. Now you’ve tested 10 letters in 2 guesses, leaving you 4 guesses to actually solve the puzzle.

The idea is simple: spend the first 2 guesses on information, the last 4 on solutions.

A sample game, guess by guess

Here’s how the method plays out. Say the hidden word is CRANE.

SLATE: S grey, L grey, A green, T grey, E green. Two letters placed: _ _ A _ E.
BRINK: B grey, R green, I grey, N green, K grey. Now you have _ R A N E.
Only a few words fit _RANE. Grey letters rule out several first letters, and CRANE is the everyday word left standing. CRANE: all green.

Three guesses, and the second one did the heavy lifting even though it couldn’t be the answer.

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. On the official site you switch it on in settings before your first guess; our guide on how to toggle Wordle hard mode has the steps.

Endgame: when you have all the letters

Sometimes you’ll reach guess 4 or 5 knowing all five letters but not their order. Usually there are only 2-3 possible arrangements, so the job is to rule them out efficiently. Use your yellows: a yellow tile tells you where a letter is not.

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, the candidates are ORATE and OATER: narrow by which letters are green vs. yellow.

Why some days are unsolvable

The bigger danger is knowing four letters with many words that fit. A pattern like _IGHT can be FIGHT, LIGHT, MIGHT, NIGHT, RIGHT, SIGHT or TIGHT, and guessing them one at a time can burn through every remaining row. Answers are common words, but the accepted-guess list is far larger, which you can use to your advantage.

If you’re stuck with several candidates and guesses to spare, the move is: play a valid word that tests several candidate letters at once, even if it can’t be the answer. For _IGHT, a guess like FILMS checks F, L, M and S in one go. In hard mode you can’t do this, which is exactly why hard mode is harder.

Common beginner mistakes

Reusing grey letters. Check the keyboard before every guess; a grey letter in your guess is a wasted slot.
Putting a yellow back in the same spot. Yellow tells you where the letter isn’t. Move it.
Assuming no repeats. If nothing else fits, try a double letter.
Guessing the answer too early. With five or more possible words left, an information guess usually saves rows.
Picking rare words. Answers lean toward everyday English, so the common candidate is the better bet.

Once these are habits, our guide on how to be a better Wordle solver covers the advanced techniques.

Statistics: what counts as good?

Wordle’s statistics screen shows your games played, win percentage, current and max streak, and how many guesses each win took. A good target is simple: win nearly every day and keep most solves at guess 3 or 4. The NYT also offers WordleBot, which reviews your game against a computer solver so you can see where a guess wasted information.

Where to play Wordle

Official: the daily Wordle on The New York Times Games site. Daily puzzle, free, same word for everyone. For the game’s background, see the Wordle Wikipedia article or our story of who made Wordle.

Our version: Wordle on dinogame.gg. Same six-guess, green-yellow-grey rules, but with a randomly-chosen word each game so you can play unlimited times to practice. Press New word for a fresh puzzle, or Give up to see the answer; your wins and streak are saved in your browser. It has no hard-mode switch, so practice hard mode by holding yourself to the rule.

Want more of a challenge? Quad Word gives you four boards, one keyboard and nine guesses, with a daily puzzle that’s the same for everyone plus a practice mode.

For more daily word puzzles, see our games like Wordle roundup.

Frequently asked questions

How many guesses do you get in Wordle?

Six. Each guess must be a valid five-letter word, and an invalid word is rejected without using up a row.

What do the colors mean in Wordle?

Green is the right letter in the right spot, yellow is a letter that’s in the word but somewhere else, and grey is a letter that isn’t in the word, or isn’t in it a second time.

Can a Wordle answer have the same letter twice?

Yes. Words like APPLY or SKILL repeat a letter. If a letter shows green or yellow once and grey in a second copy, the answer has exactly one of it.

What is the best first word in Wordle?

Any word built from common letters with no repeats works well: SALET, SLATE, CRANE, TRACE and STARE are popular. Using the same one every day matters more than picking the perfect one.

Can I play Wordle more than once a day?

The official game has one puzzle a day. Our unlimited Wordle picks a new random word every time you start, so you can practice as often as you like.

Ready to play

Learn the colors, commit to an opener, spend guess two on fresh letters and enumerate in the endgame: that’s how to play Wordle well. Start a practice round now, and when you need a rest from words, run the T-Rex through the desert for a minute.

How to Play Wordle — Strategy Guide for Beginners to Experts