The best Wordle strategy - according to science

[@rayrobichaud5224]

To keep it challenging, I've been using the solution to the previous day's Wordle as my opening move.

[@DrAndrewSteele]

I do this sometimes after an earlier commenter suggested it. It’s a good way to mix things up a bit!

[@mikesatawake2277]

That's a fun idea!

[@ItsCocoTacos]

Imagine if the previous word was “queue”. That would make it even harder.

[@lcflngn]

Lol, good idea. Mine are random, as the words are fairly random. I use the same theory with Lotto, not that it’s made me a million $.

[@microwave856]

The day after Xylyl: *guess i’ll waste my first try*

[@powdertrax9742]

I have to tell my crazy Wordle story. It was about two weeks ago I had made myself a some peanut butter toast for a late breakfast, and decided to work on my Wordle. After I made the toast I put it on one of our kids SpongeBob plates and sat at the table trying to figure out a good first word. I had eaten the first piece and looked down to grab the second piece and the second piece was covering the letter “K” to the phrase Krusty Crew, so all I read was Rusty Crew, so I thought Rusty would be a good first word and it was Rusty. That is my SpongeBob Wordle story

[@ClavisRa]

I've lately used "clear" as my opener, primarily because c, l, and r are some of the most versatile letters for combining with other consonants. Also it puts those three in their most common positions and the vowels in the middle. Hits on those consonants also drive my letter selection in word two efficiently. Also e, a are the most flexible vowels, especially together. My second guess often is four consonants and one vowel.. if possible. After that there's a very tight window of possible word structures available. The problem with first word s and t is they are too flexible in both letter position and combination and can leave you with too big of a search space.

[@davidbrandel1311]

I just completed my second Wordle this morning and eliminated the letter “R” as a possibility in my opening guess both times.

[@francescaa8331]

@@davidbrandel1311love wordle. I like to start with ARISE.

[@wishingb5859]

@@francescaa8331 Arise is a good one. Pious is good because a lot of the words are plural so starting with an "S" at the end works in two ways. End letters are often S, N, T, L, D, G, R E, Y so words like Stray often give you a good chance.

[@francescaa8331]

@@wishingb5859 That's a good idea about a plural being one of the early words. I also liked the idea of jumpy as the third word, if the first two aren't giving enough clues. Some good advice on this thread. I played something like this years ago and left off but I am now playing wordle. I became an avid words with friends player in the interim...that definitely helps.

[@davidbrandel1311]

If you enter the words TUBES CHAMP FLING and WORDY for your first four words you will have played every letter except J,K,Q,V,X, and Z. That only leaves two chances but 90% of the time you will have at least four of the letters you need, and most often you will have all five.

[@stewiecountry]

We (my little puzzle group of family members) start with a different word each day, often inspired by what is going on in our lives that day or maybe just a random item in the room. It is much more fun that way.

[@ranatlas]

Nice! What I do is, I put the radio on and use the first five letter word I hear in the song. 🙂

[@christopherbyrne7981]

One of the reasons I love this game is that as a pure game, the varied mechanics--random guess, deductive reasoning, and final guess or guesses, is classic game mechanics, requiring different mental faculties and, when you get it, allowing the player a brief moment of feeling smart. I love the computer modeling, but one thing to remember about games is that they are quintessentially human, and the fun of Wordle is not just guessing (or not guessing) but being able to have a social moment with others around it. Totally love this perspective, though. And it's part of game mechanics to develop methodologies to "outsmart" the game.

[@Windupchronic]

I almost always use “Stare” as my first guess. Not only does it contain some of the most common letters in English, but even if none of them come up and I have zero letters for my second guess, the complete lack of those letters gives me an enormous amount of information. Being able to immediately eliminate any word that has an S T A R or E is extremely useful. With this strategy, while I’ve never gotten it on my first try, I have gotten it on my second try 14 times. Third try is my most common, at 56, with fourth try as second most common, at 44. (It probably helps that I was an English major and frequently did well in spelling bees as a child.)

[@susansheper]

Me too

[@enjay8950]

I use Stare too! for the same reasons.

[@timb8549]

I avoid it. I think you've hit the nail on the head, highlighting its usefulness when you get zero letters. I think you are *more* likely to get 2-3 letters, which gets you pretty boxed in (assuming hard mode here!). I like a word where getting letters helps me with the *shape* of a word, if that makes sense.

[@oppyrider1925]

I like to use a different starting word every time. Somehow feels more entropic

[@DrAndrewSteele]

This is the way!

[@Karen-jp1ns]

I know there are good starting words, but I don't think those words will help you get it on the first try which is why a start with random words.

[@jemiller1000]

It's not about winning but about using your mind in spontaneous ways. At least for me.

[@tomg3833]

Exactly. I use the first 5 letter word I think of. I don't care if it takes me all 6 attempts to get it as it's just a bit of fun. I've even fluked it on the first guess once.

[@locomotivetrainstation6053]

@@jemiller1000 yes

[@JohnPatersonAu]

I've recently solved it in two moves using CRANE as the opener. Eg: on Feb 27, the word was CHANT, so CRANE had the C, A & N in the right spots 😄

[@kennethschlatmann776]

It is interesting how this game "WORD:LE" is similar to a game I played against the Main Frame Computer at Stevens Tech in Hoboken back in 1973. That game was called "JOTTO." The premise of the game was the same; you select five letter words in an effort to determine the hidden word. The difference is that you would only receive a response of how many correct letters you have. There is no indication of which letters were correct nor their location. My wife and I have played this game when vacationing since college. It's a great way to stretch your vocabulary and analytical skills. Of course it usually takes somewhat more than 6 guesses to reach the answer.

[@PrimoStracciatella]

Same here, I had to google to find that it's called JOTTO. I played it often with my English students at the end of a lesson. It's like a more difficult version of WORDLE with an influence of MASTER MIND.

[@kennethschlatmann776]

@@PrimoStracciatella Yes Mastermind only 26 options vs 6.

[@abbyhillman769]

I always start with "adieu" or "audio". I just find it more helpful to know what my vowels are, and usually get the word in 3 or 4 guesses.

[@JMcMillen]

Wouldn't have helped the other day when the lone vowel was a 'Y'.

[@EthanY3K]

@@JMcMillen y isn't a vowel

[@mattbucello8627]

@@EthanY3K a e i o u and sometimes y

[@EthanY3K]

@@mattbucello8627 I have never heard of y "sometimes" being a vowel

[@rainbowesque1]

@@EthanY3K Then you are ignorant as to the rules of grammar surrounding the letter Y. This is easily remedied! Y is only a consonant when it is pronounced with a "hard" Y, as in "yes" or "beyond". In cases of a "short" Y (gym) or "long" Y (fly), it is a vowel. And if there are no other vowels present in the word, you can be certain Y is fulfulling that role.

[@jcoutdoorplaceorg]

Vowels are easier to guess than consonants. Best strategy is to find the consonants in the first two tries. After that, depending on results, focus on locations and vowels. My first choices are SHENT and DRAWL for the first two. If vowels needed then OPIUM for the 3rd try.

[@ClavisRa]

Along those lines I like to focus on consonant combinations, since there are very limited ways consonants can adjoin, and most words have at least one such pairing. l and r are the most flexible consonants. Also a, e, besides the most common vowels, also are the most flexible and pair really well with each other in words, so I want both in my first word. Which is why I've been liking "clear" a lot. Thus on my second word I either have a most likely candidate for next vowel, or can reuse a vowel for location. Either way, I'm also narrowing my search for consonant partners depending on hits and misses in the first word, but by word three, the confirmation or impossibility of the different consonant pairings often leaves me with only two likely options, or an outlier pattern like *ight or **nny.

[@kevintheilen9643]

I agree- forget the vowels. I begin with the fewest vowels possible i.e., CREST and HANDY. Look at (not in) your dictionary- your paper dictionary- and see which letters begin the most words. First is 's' and second is 'c'. My two first guesses suss out 'h' combos and words ending in 'y'. I plan my third guess to include 'l'. If I don't get many hits by then, I assume a double letter and fish for vowels. In my opinion, thinking of Wordle as a math problem only minimizes LOSING. It does not maximize WINNING (guessing the word in 4 or fewer guesses).

[@longcoollady2770]

My opening word is LIGHT, followed by BROWN ... I've never gone beyond five moves, usually four.

[@lynnpoint6395]

I employ a strategy that plays all ten of the 1-point Scrabble tiles in my first two words, which gets all the vowels and the five most common consonants in play. This has been getting it in 3 for me around 1/3 of the time, and in 4 around another 1/3. But I am intrigued by your reverse thinking here, going consonant heavy to start, and I think I'll give that a try. It reminds me of a test I took yrs g tht shwd w cld rd wht smn ws wrtng jst fn wtht ny vwls.

[@stevenbirnbaum7793]

How I pick my opening word: I open a random book, turn to a random page, and use the first 5-letter word I see. My only rule beyond that is to not start with a word if it has repeated letters. Then you play strategies to use the letters you know about, and/or discover information about the letters you don't. Try not to use eliminated letters. It can really challenge your vocabulary. One more thing... this is a good social opportunity to play with friends. You share the opening word and after everyone is finished, share screen shots of your games. There is no winner or loser. The fun comes in solving it (or not, dammit) and seeing how others approached the same goal from the same starting point. Usually we take different paths, but it's a lot of fun when we chose the same second word, and sometimes even the same third word. P.S. I once opened with ADIEU. It felt like I cheated!

[@kerikal644]

I always use 'audio' and 'entry' as my opening moves since I have every vowel (including y) and common letters such as d, n, t and r.

[@soup_shy]

i use aeros and unity

[@joshuaweiner1]

I was glad to see that "REAST" is the AI's best opening word, because I've been using "TEARS", the same 5 letters since day 1. I intuitively had high entropy in my guesses, following TEARS with GHOUL, then WINDY. Between those 3 words as always my first 3 guesses, I use all the vowels, D, G, H, L, N, R, S, T, W, and Y. All three words also have a common end letter of S, L, or Y. With this strategy, I practically always know the word on the 4th move.

[@justinlami9573]

Love the shout-out to 3Blue1Brown and love your follow-up chart with the top 100 words. Playing on hard mode and getting better distribution using my own method... but it's really making me think about if I should change my opening guess from IRATE to something higher up the 'hard common list' like TRACE, or STARE. I usually save the 'S' for the second guess though since it is so common.

[@wishingb5859]

I always try to put the "S" as the final letter because so many of the words are plural.

[@fairbs]

I start with irate because it has 5 of the 6 most used letters although that may not be true if you're only looking at 5 letter words. I follow up with locus (depending on how I do with irate) to then cover 10 of the top 11 used letters (and ~40% of all letters and all vowels except sometime y (as I learned it)). locus also conveniently aligns with Wishing B's comment below about plural words being popular (and I hadn't really thought about). In general, if most of the 'top' starting words are within a % or 2 of each other, I'm not so sure that which one you pick matters all that much. And I think the whole premise of this video that entropy is the best strategy is suspect.

[@ashxsh]

Had learned Entropy in school as a vague concept, never thought it could be applied to a game I would play on the Internet. One thing I have learned is that no matter what you do, always start with your Heart.

[@ryanrichards6930]

Based on Wordle history I have started using CRONE and ALIST as my opening words.

[@aliginnit90501]

For non hard mode, I personally think that the first 2 guesses are the most important and makes for a better approach to solving more consistently. I approach wordle by ranking whihc letters I'm goingo to try to find first by the SCRABBLE points system i.e. use the 1 point letters first, move on to the 2 point letters, then 3 and so on. By doing so, I always choose ROUTE and then NAILS. I then try to incorporate D, G, M, C, P and Y if I've letter contains only 1 vowel. I find that this approach lets me get through the possible letters very quickly.

[@billswifejo]

I tend to use a combination of two words that use all the vowels (including y), often HAIRY and MOUSE. This usually gives me a good idea of the shape of the word, one or two syllables, and also goes through a lot of the common consonants. If I use ADIEU and only get one vowel hit, I would use something like STORY. If I get three vowel hits on my first word, I don’t usually bother with the complementary word as, in just five letters, it’s unlikely that there will be more than three vowels.

[@lynnpoint6395]

Good strategy! Personally, I might play LOUSE over MOUSE as (based on Scrabble point distribution) L is more common than M, but those differences are what makes it a horse race.

[@mrdfw666]

I use yeast and then houri all vowels covered and common consonants. Usually get in 3 or 4 guesses

[@billswifejo]

@@mrdfw666 they are good words, although I’ve never heard of houri, I’ll have to look it up. A few days after I posted this, the Wordle actually was ‘hairy’. Did wonders for my stats!

[@kurtissjacobs5618]

But then you've wasted guesses, because you'll have to use at least one of those vowels again in easch of your 3rd, 4th, and 5th guesses..

[@billswifejo]

@@kurtissjacobs5618 I wouldn’t say wasted. Every word has at least one vowel in it, but not necessarily in the place indicated by MOUSE and HAIRY. Take today, nothing from HAIRY and only an orange O in MOUSE. O is most common in 2nd or 3rd positions. So I start looking for pairs of consonants that go together. I can rule out TH, CH, PH, WH and SH, because there is no H. I can also rule WR, CR, TR, FR etc because there is no R. I can rule out SM, ST, SK as possible word ending as no S. I looked at the remaining consonants and saw thar FL and CK were available, and tried FLOCK and was right. It’s not perfect obviously, otherwise there would be no skill to the game! It could have been CLOCK, or there could have been a double O, such as SPOON. If I’m playing Quordle, I sometimes use PLANK as a third word if nothing looks obvious. This gives me four additional consonants and the A in a different position. With Sedecordle, I rarely need a third word. I actually find Quordle the most challenging, as provided that I remember to use American spelling, the words in Sedecordle tend to be a bit predictable. Lots of words related to war, religion and hubris. I can usually get all sixteen words in 19 attempts.

[@nyima04011]

I find when my intuition is engaged it's as good or better than any 'best' first word...

[@JMcMillen]

I eventually settled on STARE as my starting word. It ranked well on your list as it contains good common letters. I chose this over a number of other words you can make with the same letters as I discovered during one puzzle when I opened with STEAR is that I'm not likely to consider the E for the final position right away, so if it does go there it helps me to know that right away. Also, if RE are both yellow, my next guess will flip them. Personally I play as if I am in hard core mode, but don't actually play with it turned on as I have had occasions where I needed to fish out that final letter when I've got 4 greens and a lot of possibilities left.

[@need2know00]

STARE is also the opening word I was using. I played for several months and never lost. Then I lost interest and stopped playing. It's interesting though that the word is ranked pretty high on the best opening word list.

[@JMcMillen]

@@need2know00 I still play but I stopped 'sharing' my results. Still haven't lost one as of yet.

[@AERIEDM]

Rates is mine. Just anagrams of reast

[@FidgetMDCCLXIV]

Stare is a good one. I also like scale, scare, slate, snare, and stale.

[@GoWithHelen]

Stare is my opening word too.

[@FYRAsings]

I love putting LOUIE! It's only missing an A, and L is also a pretty popular letter that can be used anywhere in a word

[@kumarpatel6294]

I use "IRATE". It contains first, second, third, fourth and the sixth most frequent letters in the language. It also contains four vowels. Second word depends on the outcome of the first try.

[@healingbuddy]

I only count three vowels here.

[@kumarpatel6294]

@@healingbuddy you are right. I was mistaken.

[@dembonez19]

Eyyy! That's my first word, too!

[@TbarRocks]

using "ROAST" i get it in two more than 1 in 10 tries...best was ROAST to CRIMP in 2.

[@jaywood8296]

In my 37 times playing, There has not been a word starting in I, and only one with R in the second position.

[@Trasea]

I remember reading that "crate" or "trace" or "react" was a good first word. I use "audio" a lot too, and "ocean."

[@jeannejessup7203]

Audio is a good one.

[@turkeytalker]

I use GHAST as my opener, and BRINE as a follow up. I find that they give me the most positional information, and they help me narrow down letter combinations quicker. Also, I like that your chapter names for this video are all 5-letter words.

[@JamisonWhite73]

I’m from Florida so I use REALS HUMID.

[@hunterdatdude]

For my starting word I always do neats. It’s surprisingly works out very well a lot of times. Then I use brick, and jumpy. There’s almost always going to be 3 or so letters uncovered or in the right spot.

[@HunterOneMillion]

mathematically you should guess tubes, champ, fling, and wordy first

[@francescaa8331]

That's pretty good. I start with arise and then bound or clout, but I like your idea of brick and jumpy. I especially like jumpy because it covers letters I don't usually think of.

[@thesoundsmith]

I start with 'adieu' followed by 'stony' It covers the most frequent letters while showing all vowels including 'Y' which 'stone' does not. Then it's a matter of eliminating impossible positions and finding letter combinations for the halves of the puzzle. No math, but logic and a lot of sequential testing. I've started at #1and have missed 5 out of 92 so far.

[@shawdowyhooman6880]

story would be better with the r, n and r are better in their own way, but r goes better for me

[@jeanniea3437]

I have used exactly the same words! Adieu and then story.

[@cblazgoogle3844]

I’ve been using “adieu & stylo”.. but I’m gonna switch to story 👍👍👍

[@locomotivetrainstation6053]

@@shawdowyhooman6880 R is better

[@JJ_TheGreat]

3:45 “FUZZY” is a bad choice because it contains letters which are not contained in as many words. I would say that you need to choose words with a wide variety of letters, which contain more common letters.

[@olderandwiser333]

I started out using steal, then switched to stale and I've been using slate for quite a while. After watching your video and seeing that it comes in 6th on your list, at 3.616, I plan to continue.

[@AnnDeneeLivingSimply]

LEAST is one of my starting guesses.

[@judiebradshaw4368]

I use “pious” as my first word and “heart” as my second word and I always get the answer.

[@maxz2433]

My strategy, without using 'entropy' maximizing algorithm has been simple, use two opening words, which cover all vowels and doesn't repeat any letters: so I use "MOUSE" or "HOUSE" for first word and "PAINT" for the second. This way, I have 10 letters and all vowels covered. Since Q, Z and a few other letters are relatively uncommon, I was able to get 3, 4 and 5 guesses in 22%, 42% and 25%, respectively.

[@BillMaxVoxPax]

I have a similar strategy at times. but I like to try to collect the y as well. ie "ROUGE" and "AMITY", but to be honest I'm using these for quordle. but if you don't mind I'm gonna try "HOUSE" and "PAINT"

[@wandasetzer1469]

This takes all the joy out of Wordl for me. I don't approach it mathematically, I approach it from the standpoint of my much better vocabulary skills and what Wordl tells me is luck. This tells me that those who do computer programming don't think at all as I do.

[@markquirico1079]

I always use STARE, BINGO, PLUCK/CHUMP/CLUMP(depends on the letters I got from first 2) as my opening then most of the time, I get it on the 4th try.

[@robmontier639]

SCARE and QUOIT are mine.

[@borderlands6606]

@@robmontier639 QUOIT isn't a great choice over the long term. Wordle compilers know Q is always followed by U (unless you're a Scrabble freak), and often at the beginning of a 5 letter word. Q comes up relatively infrequently for that reason - they'll probably put Q in tomorrow now I've said that!

[@robmontier639]

@@borderlands6606 FAQIR! Unlikely but you never know...

[@sandoncrowder7839]

I use a combo of three words to cover more than half the alphabet, Unity, Omega, and Wraps. About half the time it will give me all the correct letters and the other half I will get at least one correct but have more than half of the possible letters ruled out which makes it fairly easy to narrow down possible words. Starting with these three words gives me three chances to guess but I’ve been able to with about 95% accuracy in only three guesses instead of using all 6

[@mundomyown2539]

No fun!

[@Draphcone]

I think people are too fixated on finding the best opening word when it's really the simple matter of eliminating alphabets to the point where it becomes virtually impossible for you to *not* find the answer. I almost always spend my first 3 guesses to eliminate the common characters: Using "arose", "clift" and "dumpy". Of course, using this method means that you will almost never solve the puzzle within 2-3 guesses. However, being able to solve quickly is IMO meaningless because that part of the game is mostly up to luck. A 100% solve-rate strategy is more meaningful than one that solves quickly at times but risks failing to solve at other times.

[@davidcohen1356]

I agree. My goal is to solve it, not necessarily to solve it quickly. I use one of several three-word sequences, such as SLANT>BROKE>CUPID that rule in or rule out 5 vowels and 10 higher-frequency consonants. Occasionally the first two words provide enough info to start screening a small number of possible solutions with the third word. I almost always solve in 4 or 5 which suits me just fine.

[@zackersquackers]

STARE POUND CLIMB It's my mantra when I play, by the third word you've used up all the vowels, have non repeating letters, and dwindled down either the direct answer or a small pool to make the guess pretty easy.

[@FM-nm4ng]

I use, "ADIEU" as my starter and my second guess is, "MONTH" in order to use the fifth vowel and MNTH since they are pretty common letters. I'm curious what the entropy pattern of ADIEU looks like.

[@ravomino8088]

STORY > MONTH

[@anthonydauer]

Best strategy ever. 😎

[@casperiito]

I find ADIEU and AUDIO to be wastes of a guess since I don't need to guess all vowels to know which vowels are present. Eliminating 3 vowels OR identifying 1-2 vowels essentially achieves the same outcome.

[@gregd6706]

So you literally NEVER get the word in two tries??? That's pathetic.

[@FM-nm4ng]

@@gregd6706 I have not been playing Wordle that long but I've solved the puzzle on the second try three times so far.

[@BobWestWA8YCD]

SOARE and REAST come up as "NOT A WORD" in my version. I have been opening with POINT followed by HEARS and doing OK. Maybe not optimum, but fairly successful!

[@aadamtx]

Interesting! I've been playing the NY Times version online and thus far have solved 146 out of 147 (I missed the very first one because, well, I didn't read the directions and realize a letter could be used twice in a word). Working with the logic of common letters to start, I always start with a combination of the same frequently-used letters in American English - "stare," "tears," "rates." That opening word also gives me a few common combinations - ea, st, tr, es, er. The other benefit, as happened today, is that I might eliminate those common letters altogether and move on to the vowels i and o, plus common combinations such as gh and pl. Almost missed 'rhyme' as the solution the other day - the only missing letter was the middle y, and for the life of me I couldn't think of an English word that went RH_ME. BUGGY was a good one today that took me to slot 6. And I have a near perfect bell curve of solutions!

[@thejoyofsoxmovie7211]

Interesting, thanks. Just wondering where your bell curve is centered. I'm guessing 4....

[@aadamtx]

@@thejoyofsoxmovie7211 If I'm reading the curve correctly in relation to the number of attempt, the peak is on Attempt 4, with 3 and 5 neck and neck, then 2 and 6 (I don't have the results in front of me, but I think 2 and 6 have 9 attempts each and were successful). This past week I scored again on my second guess, which amazed me!

[@thejoyofsoxmovie7211]

@@aadamtx I start with "orate" and average 4 as well. Congrats on your 2; I'm lucky if I get one a month!

[@aadamtx]

@@thejoyofsoxmovie7211 I've had the best luck with a variation using e,a,s,t, and r (tears, rates, stare all work). If that combo comes up with a goose egg, then I try words that include o and i. Strangely, P seems to be a popular letter!

[@thejoyofsoxmovie7211]

@@aadamtx You might like Edgar Allan Poe's 1843(!) short story called "The Gold Bug". The hero has to solve a cipher to find a treasure, and he uses the frequency of letters in everyday speech to help him crack the code. e-t-a-o-i-n-r-s-h-d-l-u, IIRC.

[@michaelbeerbados3291]

first word-HEART second word-SOUND third word-MILKY...of couse if you pick up ANY letter with the 3 openers you adjust immediately.. This strategy for me is 99.9% effective. I usually complete on the 3rd try.

[@elnorac]

Thanks for the great video. It’s not very important, but a “soare“ is an obsolete term for a young hawk. “Soar” is the word for when a bird flies upward quickly.”

[@DrAndrewSteele]

I’d seen that online too, so I checked in the OED, and the first definition is an old spelling of soar, so I went with that. The young hawk one is fifth on the list. :)

[@donaldfschiff1229]

@@DrAndrewSteele Way to choose an authoritative source, sir.

[@Nonduality]

Also, consider starting with a word rich in consonants such as snarl. Then follow with a word rich in vowels.

[@kellyjohnson3617]

I start with Earth, then Lions, usually I can get the word on the third or fourth try. The most common letters are in those two words. The remaining letters require more limited combinations. It leaves you with a definite U if no verbs are colored. H is a great letter cuz few consonants go with H, ch, wh, gh; and sh and th are already in earth and lions. So earth for me has been the best word for me. But relies on lions as the second. I usually get it in three or four guesses. It’s just as important to eliminate letters as well as correct ones

[@lynnpoint6395]

Good thinking.

[@TheLT704]

Might try that on Tuesday..

[@lynnpoint6395]

(But a slight problem with being left with a "definite U if no [vowels] are colored" are words like CRYPT, GLYPH, GYPSY, LYMPH, LYNCH, PSYCH, TRYST and etc. Granted, 5-letter words with Y as the vowel are in limited supply, but NYMPH has been played... :)

[@ranimerens5413]

My most frequent opener is orate. I often get it in three, four at the most. If you play Phoodle, where the winning word is related to food, Drink, or cooking, my favorite starter word is anise and my daughter’s favorite is plate. along with a family friend of ours who is, interestingly, a chef, we share our process, the slate of words that got us from start to finish. We dissect why we chose each word and it is educational for us all.

[@VdFCatLord]

I start with two words: Audio and then Preys, to cover all the vowels and r and s which are common consonants. It works pretty well for me. Note that I am French and when playing the French version, I haven't find a pair as good as this one, so my statistics in English Wordle are better than in the French Wordle !

[@chuckperego2216]

Funny, because my first choice is "adieu" which is, obviously, French! Not sure why the game allows certain foreign words but not others.

[@tigergreg8]

Arise works well for me

[@locomotivetrainstation6053]

@@tigergreg8 I think raise

[@tigergreg8]

@@locomotivetrainstation6053 You know they are the same letters. LOL 😄

[@locomotivetrainstation6053]

@@tigergreg8 in better positions

[@maxwellheenan458]

I like audio, it covers 4 of the 6 vowels. Meaning the only two vowels you would need to check for are E and Y which are in abundent of other words. And more likely then not you can get a good sense of the word based on what other info you get from audio.

[@Henrix1998]

Every channel decided to make a video about Wordle this week

[@DrAndrewSteele]

Haha, it’s a hot topic! Hmm, TOPIC might not be a bad opening guess…

[@bobbo0616]

Your -OUND example is spot on. I got screwed on a word that is the least obvious….HOUND. I now look for a word that contains multiple possibilities so I don’t get boxed in like you said.

[@dantenoto7130]

I change my opening word every day. Picking that word is part of the fun! I will hear or see a word and think, great Wordle starter. I’ve won 100% of my games in mostly three tries. I like the risk of consonants rather than vowel hunting. You kinda know after two tries if you need to switch that strategy.

[@miamiracer]

I use ABODE and UNITS because they contain all the vowels plus B, D, N, T and S. It generally works out pretty well, I average a answer in four tries. I think that trying to get too technical and stressed over the way to solve the puzzle takes all the fun out of it.

[@owenaspinall2046]

Maybe try ADORE? The R is better than a B.

[@miamiracer]

@@owenaspinall2046 I have been for the last three days and today I got the Wordle solved in the third try!!

[@danielcaldwell5940]

I use terns for my first guess because t,r,s and n are most frequent consonants. I try to get an l,and d in my second guess. I also try to get more vowels in the second guess. I think if you have all the consonants the word can be guessed easily. I have wondered if when missing only one letter it would be better to try a word that includes as many of those letters as possible.

[@SarahB1863]

I start with HASTE, as it contains the most commonly used letters. Depending on what I get, I either start guessing the word or use my second word, FLUID, which takes care of most of the vowels. If I'm still stumped I try POWER, which uses up just about all of the most common letters. Usually by then I've taken out enough letters that I can guess the word.

[@SueJohnson2024]

i’m going to try that. i’ve used raise and touch for so long. i like it because it eliminates all the vowels not needed many many times i get 4 out of 5 letters using those 2 words and can guess in 3 tries, at the most 4. 😊

[@FreedomPact]

All I want in life is to have the video quality of Andrew Steele 🐐 So crisp! Quality video as always, mate! Your channel is going to blow up this year!

[@DrAndrewSteele]

Thanks so much dude! I hope you’re right. :)

[@AScrapOfKindness]

Oh my!, and here I was thinking it just fun. The word I select for the day is one that is relevant to whatever I am involved in at that moment. Thank you for sharing -- I watched and listened all the way through even though most of it flew over my head at breakneck speed.

[@the_vine_queen]

I usually start with "Adieu" to get the vowels, and my second word is "Thorn", since it has the last vowel, and all the other consonants are pretty common too. Then I think about the vowels in the word, plus any other consonants, and try to think of possible letter combos that could be in the final word. I usually get it in 4 with this method.

[@0MG1TSLYSS]

Just did this. My word has 3 vowels-

[@0MG1TSLYSS]

AxxOx ( yellow letter: U)

[@russelldavey3305]

Or NORTH

[@pfury67]

adieu then sport to start for me, unless adieu has a bunch of hits

[@BlackFarmer1856]

I use either "REAST" or "STARE" Because It clears s, t, and r, plus a and e. S, T, and R are probably the most common consonants, plus A and E for the same reason.

[@foomoo1088]

It would be interesting to see the result of optimizing for the best first two words instead of repeating the same algorithm for each successive word. Start the latter algorithm on word 3

[@DrAndrewSteele]

A really solid opening pair probably more helpful! But coming up with a good second word based on the results from the first part of the fun… :)

[@susancrawford2343]

I learned this game in high school - pen and paper - and was stunned to see it come alive in 2022. The NYT only has one a day so I play another "world" which goes to 7 letters. Lots of fun for my brain.

[@KrazyCouch2]

I really find this fascinating, even despite the fact that I'd already figured out a lot of the stuff here. I'd really love to see what you've done more in detail though, and the programs you used!

[@chanjcm]

I use SOARE and then CLINT - I'm split about 50% between 3 and 4 guesses since I started using those 2 as my starters.

[@richdobbs6595]

I'm currently using CRATE, based on a "real" word from an entropy optimizing approach (2nd choice), with requiring myself to play in hard mode (most of the the time). But the problem is that by maximizing entropy, you eliminate easy to generate guesses. So each game is a frustrating problem trying to figure out a hard-to-guess word, with my average result between 3 and 4. My initial approach was a four word sweep of unique letters, typically identifying all the letters in the solution. But the average score was more than 4, so much worse than a good initial guess followed by using hard mode. Ultimately, my objective function is to figure out how to stop playing this game which is creating repetitive stress problems with my right upper arm!

[@tjayoub]

I did the same thing with entropy, but also incorporated word frequency data from google, so both entropy and commonality were considered. I found that RATES was the best opener

[@nightowl8677]

I use outer and slain. That eliminates a lot of letters in the first 2. I usually can guess or come pretty close after that.

[@SP-de4bp]

03/03/22 I have tried this method today for the first time and I started with word MOUNT then shows me 4 letters correct and which 3 are in perfect place 🤩 it is very easy to find this time. Thanks for the video 🙏

[@preetikulkarni6476]

I too tried it and I got the word in third try

[@Lukomeyan]

I have developed my own strategy. 1st: RAISE. I have 3 vowels and I think some of the most common letters used in English and it's quite close to SOARE (which I've never heard of until now). 2nd: YOUNG. If RAISE gives me nothing, then I use the remaining vowels and Y. I'm absolutely guaranteed to get at least one yellow from my first 2 words. If I get 3 or 4 letters which can give me many options, like S_ARE, I try to make words which use as many of the possibilities together. like STERN uses T and N. STARE or SNARE is now either eliminated or confirmed. So far I'm been pretty successful.

[@mykaladams1135]

I always use the same three words as my opening, and 9 times out of ten I’ll have the word in 4. Here they are: Stern Claim Dough All vowels and the most common consonants. Doing this leaves me with very few combinations left. What do you think of this strategy?

[@juliaconnell]

question is - is it working for *you* - I think any strategy/combo that works for you is good. mine are stare, onium, glyph - and if I'm stuck usually decaf (don't like reusing a & e - but all that's left is really k - oh & I suppose w (qjzxv)

[@mykaladams1135]

@@juliaconnell yes, mine work great for me. 9 times outta 10 I get the word in 4. Sometimes it takes a long time to figure out what the word is through elimination and experimentation. The really hard ones are words with double letters.

[@juliaconnell]

@@mykaladams1135 that's awesome Mykal - glad you've got a system that works for you. 😃👍 yip, same, mostly I get it by 4, sometimes 3, sometimes 5 - only failed once (one of those annoying - all green for most except the first letter - something like watch, batch, catch, latch, match, hatch etc) 🙄

[@davidlacey9474]

The best wordle strategy - for a computer (unusable by a human) - according to science. Useful 👍🤔

[@greenchess1832]

Very happy to see my guess, “rates”, as #84 and #70 in easy and hard mode! Also surprised to see that the best word, reast, is an anagram of rates. Nice video, and I love the way you approached this problem.

[@DrAndrewSteele]

It RATES highly! :)

[@greenchess1832]

@@DrAndrewSteele Haha, thanks!

[@bigredracingdog466]

Tears, rates, stare, tares, and stear all work. I had no idea the latter was a word, but Wordle accepts it.

[@locomotivetrainstation6053]

I fail to see how reast is better than roate

[@kjquinn7856]

This is very interesting. I start with Saute and then use groin as the second guess...and I agree that Wordle is more difficult when the first guess gives too much correct information!

[@geswhiz]

I start with roast and child. Perhaps we knew each other in a former, tragic life.

[@CalvinsWorldNews]

Is a better strategy to purposefully ignore the green letters for your second guess and use the opportunity to hunt for an additional letter? Ie if you go for BRACE and the get [green - - - -] then for a 2nd word you could for eg BOUND or POUND and in this case, POUND would be the better guess because you get to discover if the P is part of the word. You will (by definition) never get it correct on the 2nd try but you eliminate many the 5 or 6 attempt rounds by gaining the extra information. So rather than an opening word, you have an opening pair of words. I go for TRACE and SOUND

[@davidholland4713]

Yes, a disjoint pair seems like a better strategy for humans who can't work out all the hundreds or thousands of words which fit the information from the first guess. Instead, you cast the net wide. This also helps in Quordle, where you have 9 guesses to get 4 different words. I use up to 3 disjoint words, depending on whether or not I can be certain of guessing a correct word after 2 guesses or not. Also, because humans can't evaluate all possible words, it can help to give yourself some leeway to come up with good guesses for the fourth word. If you were to get rid of all the most common letters in the first 3 words, you'd have trouble making a word which is good for elimination and doesn't just repeat information you've already got. So I think this video barely scratches the surface of human strategies for Wordle.

[@ssz8946]

After playing WordHoot non-stop, I usually finish the daily Wordle in seconds. Intuition and practice does make you better than any bots.

[@SilentSputnik]

Better than bots? Lol.

[@ssz8946]

@@SilentSputnik I've played against friends using helpers/bots on WordHoot and I can still win regularly. Mostly because they still need to take the time to enter the results into their bot and then input the suggestion back into WordHoot. If you're able to directly connect a bot to WordHoot, then yea I won't stand a chance.

[@nandinimahata9719]

I usually go with “OASIS” or “ ARISE ”, and it usually gives more yellow boxes than green ones but it is so much easier with it. “ADIEU” though a good opening word , it is tough to work with as it has just one consonant. So I found out another word “ CLOAK ” or “ CROAK” and u can use “RIVAL” . Rival has 2 common vowels , 1 common consonant and and 2 uncommon consonant

[@cber5077]

I usually use “cloud” for my second word; the first guess is “stare”.

[@TheBeckyperry]

I have been playing for about six months, and I am slowly getting better. My blow my mind moment was when my starting word was the actual word! That had never happened before or since.

[@oorimaa]

I'm more interested in best 2 opening words. (easy mode). 10 most common letters give a lot of information, but I think there are even better options. Double letters maybe? Or to rule out some specific words?

[@albertbatfinder5240]

Exactly right. The best opener is nothing if you don’t have the best follow up.

[@nareshkumar12]

How about salet and pious?

[@hworth]

I do share and mount

[@nareshkumar12]

I have had good success with salet, incur and phony as my first 3 guesses.

[@jstuart1956]

I am not sure how many I missed at the start but I have now done 188 with a 100% success rate. I use 3 words, unless something obvious comes up after 2, which are YEARS, POUND and LIGHT. I don't know how you would quantify my success rate but so far it is 0,0,13,111,47,17. I'm disappointed that, as a maths graduate, I didn't think of approaching from that standpoint. Thank you.

[@rhythm7335]

Hey Andrew, I loved ur vid. I'm a high school student, and decided to also make a wordle bot, which can win hard mode with 3.68 average guesses. Interestingly, my starting word was later. I made a vid on it (although i'm not a youtuber so it looks terrible lol), it's a very different way of approaching the problem and I think you might like it :D

[@DrAndrewSteele]

Very cool! How did you do it?! And have you thought about writing a blog post about it or something? I’d be really interested to see how it works!

[@rhythm7335]

​@@DrAndrewSteele I made a short video on my channel, but essentially, it predicts how many words will be eliminated by each character if they turn green, yellow or gray. I multiplied that number of characters by the probability of a character actually turning green, yellow or gray. I love your way of approaching the problem though, and I think it has much more potential.

[@DrAndrewSteele]

@@rhythm7335 Oh cool! That’s not a bad solution, well done. :) There are so many different approaches to solving Wordle and it’s quite interesting that they all converge on similar-ish levels of performance!

[@rhythm7335]

@@DrAndrewSteele I'm honestly loving the wordle solving trend. I wonder if theres a way to find a perfect algorithm, and prove it's perfect

[@DrAndrewSteele]

@@rhythm7335 I actually found one the other day, annoyingly after making this video! A mathematician did an exhaustive tree search, but I’m not quite sure how he proved it because it’s a bit complicated: sonorouschocolate.com/notes/index.php?title=The_best_strategies_for_Wordle

[@blogleftbanker]

I google the correct answer before I begin playing as I find this is as gratifying as solving this silly game on my own, and it saves valuable time.

[@ruatoomey9107]

Crazily, the only wordle I got wrong is found. I had 4 greens after 2 gos. The mistake I made was to try and guess the starting letter instead of picking a word that contained a p. R, m and s., as in prism. This would have eliminated 4 words. Another interesting fact is I always started with cater, then spoil, that’s 10 common letters used. But I found out that cater had been a wordle, so I changed to react.

[@timelapsega]

I use STEAL/LEAST/STALE randomly as the first, then BROWN, then HICKS or THICK (depending on results of first word) and PUDGY. Just what I came up with on my own but i've done thousands of puzzles in infinite wordle and it has a very high success rate. RSTLNE are most common letters and those are covered in the first 2 words. If you want to use REAST as the first you can use BLOWN as 2nd instead of BROWN.

[@locomotivetrainstation6053]

EAROTL not RSTLNE

[@mccannms]

Interesting analysis. My best scores have been when starting with RATIO. SLATE has also been good.

[@michellemills1681]

I used to start with AUDIO or ADIEU to get the most vowels... but I've found I can guess vowels if I have better/more consonants. What catches me is repeated vowels or consonants.

[@ejseljan]

I always use STARE as my first word. I was told A and E were the two most common vowels and S,T and R were the most common consonants. That might be completely inaccurate but that is what I do.

[@locomotivetrainstation6053]

It's R, T, L (in that order) not S, T, R

[@tuhlunksss]

I always alternate my openings with “salet” or “sloan”. super solid starts. used to be “crane” but found those 2 to be better

[@benjamineichenbrenner379]

It‘s nice to see that my strategy has a name. My openers are Sport, Flame and Chunk, which do a fine job for me

[@wishingb5859]

That is interesting. I tried "stare" instead of reaste and the word on the unlimited world was stars. Got me there pretty quick. I start with stare often. Generally, I alternate two words with all of the vowels in the first two guesses and I try to put the "s" at the end of one of those words because they do a lot of plural words. I think my favorite starting words are pious, adieu, soupy, stare - but I always try to get all of the vowels in the first two guesses even if the second word ignores the correct matches of the first word.

[@maryalicesmith2626]

I thought I read where the daily word is never a plural s. (?) I’m a Newbie. The instructions in the NYT leave out a lot.

[@wishingb5859]

@@maryalicesmith2626 That could be. The unlimited Wordle is often plural. But I do both.

[@themrwatermelon]

My strategy is starting with tubes, then fling, with champ, and wordy, using all the common letters, so the word can only have rare letters with the letters that weren't wrong, or the letters that weren't long only (if each of the words give a letter, and because they all have different letters, they're guaranteed to have all the letters), or the revealed letters, with more of those same letters, if some are missing.

[@yukiedits2106]

Me too. Eight , scary , mound

[@pratorian]

My opening word “other“ that I always start with, ended up being my word yesterday. So my score yesterday was 1/6. and yes I have proof.

[@DrAndrewSteele]

Nice! No OTHER way to manage that!

[@buckethead60]

My friend also uses Other as his starting word. I was really jealous cause that one took me 5 guesses

[@lisabay6189]

I almost never miss a guess, and I use THEIR, FAULT, SMOCK, GRAND (or GRIND if its an I i'm missing).... it's always guessable from there.

[@max_kl]

Inspired by 3Blue1Brown or just coincidence? Either way, nice video! I'll try opening with trace next time

[@DrAndrewSteele]

Coincidence! His video came out while I was editing this one. :) And thanks! Interesting that our (slightly) difference approaches came up with different answers…

[@noseman123]

@@DrAndrewSteele Turns out there was a bug in his code, that lead to a wrong conclusion. In a follow up, he came to the conclusion of soare, before dismissing it for the same reasons you outline here, and finally to salet, which wins _just barely_, with trace and crate tied for second.

[@DrAndrewSteele]

@@noseman123 I saw that too! How funny. It’s finicky enough that I thought we’d reached different answers because he was doing a frequency-weighted analysis versus me using the actual answer list. :)

[@raulgalets]

hot topic

[@simonmills2250]

I always use AROSE, which are the same letters as SOARE. These are the 5 most common letters in all the 5 letter words in the dictionary. I hadn't considered the entropy aspect though.

[@dgaryet]

Me, too. And the next 5 most common spell “until”.

[@dannygolightly865]

I use words with only 1 vowel for the first 2 guesses. i have played 98 games and lost 1 (which happened before I worked out my method). I also often start with psych or other words which contain "no" vowels. i also do dordle, quordle, octordle and have never lost on any of those.

[@kurtissjacobs5618]

You're on the right track. One vowel per guess.

[@beyond_hope]

I've always started with ALERT and if no vowels are used from that, my second would be MOUND and then CHIPS if that fails too.

[@EllaineCruz-nu8dz]

Perfect Word Game to improve your vocabulary, answer this👇 kzbin.info/www/bejne/f2icqmiZdqaHqJo

[@TheSheekeyScienceShow]

This was really well presented Andrew!

[@DrAndrewSteele]

Thank you!

[@worldsedge4991]

“Adieu” omits two vowels: “o” and “y”. Back in school, I remember the books saying the vowels were “a, e, i, o, and u. (And sometimes y).” Now, I never solidly “got” that until I started playing Wordle. I became aware of how many times I needed another vowel and “y” was the only one left. “TRYST”, for example.

[@andrewbarrow3466]

Y is not a vowel. Vowels are A, E, I, O and U. Y may have a vowel-like sound but it is a consonant.

[@worldsedge4991]

@@andrewbarrow3466 The _unique_ sound of Y is a consonant, when at the beginning of words or syllables. In many syllables, all of which need at least one vowel, you spell that vowel "Y".

[@andrewbarrow3466]

@@worldsedge4991 Thanks for clarifying things. I accept that 'Y' can function/sound as a vowel. Every day's an education, as my Welsh friends are wont to say.

[@tammyc1903]

The word “about” contains three vowels. I use the process of elimination and have won every time. This video is way way too complicated.

[@aaartem]

what is the purpose of this comment

[@MurderMostFowl]

All I need to know about how to win at Wordle I learned by watching the 80’s film “War Games”: “The only winning move is not to play.” ;)

[@jbrown2908]

Hahahaaa

[@NancyLebovitz]

What you do with the rest of the day is play redactle. You get a major widipedia article each day with almost all the words blanked out, but with the word lengths and punctuation intact. You have unlimited guesses.

[@christianemden7637]

My personal favorite is EARLY for common letters and especially checking for a y at the end. Mound is typically my second guess

[@ChrisHillOlympicRecurveArchery]

My first three are always THINK, BREAM and Sough or Dough depending on the correct letters. it gives AEIOU, and quite a few consonants.

[@locomotivetrainstation6053]

Sight dream pouch is an alteration I made

[@ClarkPotter]

I've adopted a handicap for Wordle from a friend who suggested it. You take a 5-letter word from the NYT Mini Xword as your seed word. In the rare cases there are none, you take any 5-letter string from within it that is a word. This keeps you from employing a too similar algorithm each time you play, and you get to think from the beginning. I'll never go back.

[@USCndaATL]

The most common letters used in the alphabet for five letter words are A, E, R, S, T. I like to consider the S last, so my starting word is RATES. It's never failed me.

[@USCndaATL]

Which by the way, RATES is just another way of rearranging REAST.

[@EllaineCruz-nu8dz]

Perfect Word Game to improve your vocabulary, answer this👇 kzbin.info/www/bejne/f2icqmiZdqaHqJo

[@corkhill]

Just coming across this video now. My best opener is RAISE. Just used a few logical assertions to narrow down the search field, then ran some simulations. Also if you look around you'll notice that alot of the best suggested openers are anagrams. Used that as a strategy for narrowing the search space.