What is Wordle?
Wordle is a daily five-letter puzzle where players have six attempts to guess the day's target word. Each guess returns color feedback: green for correct position, yellow for present-but-wrong-position, and gray for letters not in the word. The game is simple to learn but rewards strategy, vocabulary knowledge and awareness of letter frequency.
Wordle — history & popularity
Wordle started as a quiet, personal project by software engineer Josh Wardle.
He built the prototype in 2020 to play with his partner and friends — then released it to the public in late 2021.
Because Wordle publishes one five-letter puzzle per day and has a clean, shareable grid, it spread rapidly through social channels.
Within months a tiny experiment became a global daily habit: casual players, classrooms, and office groups all adopted the game.
The game’s popularity led to mainstream coverage and eventually to a formal acquisition by a major publisher in early 2022.
That transition put Wordle into an even larger audience while many independent tools and companion sites (solvers, word lists, analytics)
sprang up to help players improve their Wordle skills or simply archive past puzzles.
Legacy & takeaways
Wordle’s legacy is twofold: it rekindled widespread interest in casual word puzzles and showed how a simple, well-designed idea
can become a shared ritual. For players, the game sparked a cottage industry of Wordle solvers, strategy guides,
and word lists — tools that support learning and help players discover better starting words and guessing strategies.
How to play
Basic rules
Enter any valid five-letter word and submit. The grid updates with green, yellow and gray markers. Use the feedback to refine your next guess and try to finish within six attempts.
Beginner tips
- Pick a starter word with multiple vowels to reveal vowel presence early.
- Avoid repeating letters on the first guess so you check more unique letters.
- Use the on-screen keyboard and simple pencil-and-paper notes to track excluded letters.
How the solver works
Enter the letters you know into the solver: correct (green), misplaced (yellow) and excluded (gray). The tool filters a curated five-letter dictionary and returns the most likely candidates, ranked by frequency and letter-probability heuristics. This makes it faster to pick a high-value next guess.
Correct letters (green)
Put confirmed letters in their positions to eliminate any candidate not matching that pattern.
Misplaced letters (yellow)
List letters that must appear somewhere else in the word; the solver enforces inclusion but in other slots.
Excluded letters (gray)
Add letters that are not present to filter them out of suggestions — a key step in narrowing options.
Key features
- Ranked suggestions and a possible words list based on letter frequency.
- Position filters and exclusion controls for precise searching.
- Fast, privacy-first web experience — no app store required.
- Options for probability-based hints and hard-mode compatible guesses.
Best Starting Words for Wordle
Choosing the best starting words for Wordle is one of the smartest strategies for
improving your success streak. A strong opener helps identify the right vowels and consonants early,
making the following guesses more accurate. Most experienced players agree that
your first guess determines how fast you’ll find the hidden five-letter word. Below we highlight a
compact list of high-performing openers recommended by players and data-backed solvers.
Each starting word listed below covers different patterns of vowels and consonants, giving you better
odds to reveal green and yellow letters. Combine these with our Wordle Helper
tool to narrow results quickly. Try to avoid repeating letters in your early guesses — this maximizes
the amount of information gained from each attempt.
AUDIO
Excellent vowel spread — A, U, I, O.
ADIEU
Classic vowel test, good first guess.
SLATE
Strong mix of common letters, great entropy.
CRANE
Popular research-based opener; tests C, R, N, E.
TRACE
High-frequency consonants and balanced vowels.
ALERT
Good all-around starter with common endings.
STARE
Tests core English letters and word endings.
ROAST
Solid second guess after vowel-heavy start.
ABOUT
Checks A, O, U quickly — balanced opener.
Recommended Pair:
The most effective consecutive combination for Wordle today is
SALET followed by CRONY. This pair is widely known for its exceptional
coverage of English letter frequency. SALET opens with high-probability consonants (S, L, T)
and common vowels (A, E), while CRONY follows by testing new consonants (C, R, N, Y),
eliminating overlaps and maximizing the information gained in just two guesses.
Use this combination with your Wordle solver tool or helper app to generate
the next best possible guess automatically. It’s a reliable method for anyone trying to
improve their daily Wordle streak or learn strategic guessing patterns.
Many Wordle strategy guides recommend that you start
with vowel-heavy words like ADIEU or AUDIO first, then switch to consonant-balanced
options such as SLATE, CRANE, or TRACE. For example, opening with ADIEU
gives information on almost every vowel, while a follow-up like CRANE or ALERT
immediately tests the most frequent consonants and word patterns.
Some players prefer STARE or ROAST because they frequently match Wordle’s daily words
and reveal typical English endings. Meanwhile, ABOUT remains one of the simplest yet
effective openers for beginners, balancing both vowels and consonants without repeating letters.
To summarize, you can’t go wrong with these top Wordle starting words:
AUDIO, ADIEU, SLATE, CRANE, TRACE, ALERT, STARE, ROAST, ABOUT —
but if you want a statistically proven combo, start with
SALET and follow with BROND for maximum efficiency.
Tip: Always update your solver with the correct, misplaced, and excluded letters after every round.
It will instantly filter out invalid options and provide smarter Wordle suggestions
for your next guess.
Step-by-step: quick solve
- Pick a starter and submit on the puzzle. Note green/yellow/gray letters.
- Enter known positions, misplaced letters and absent letters into the helper, then click Find words.
- Choose the suggested next guess that tests the most unknown letters and repeat until solved.
Advanced strategy & hard mode
For advanced play, combine frequency analysis with pattern filtering. Test likely digrams, avoid common pitfalls like repeating eliminated letters, and use the solver's probability hints when options narrow. Hard mode requires stricter use of revealed letters; our tool can recommend compliant guesses.
FAQ
Is using a solver cheating?
That depends on how you play. Many use a solver for practice or as a learning aid. If you prefer an unassisted challenge, use the tool only for training or final hints.
Is the solver free?
Yes — this is a free online wordle helper. It runs in the browser and requires no iOS/Android app or extension.
Will it spoil today's answer?
The tool returns candidate words based on your inputs; it does not automatically publish the day's answer. Use it responsibly if you want to preserve the puzzle experience.
Where do the words come from?
We use a curated five-letter word list with frequency data to prioritize common entries.