I’m in the same boat as other people here (hey, “boats” isn’t a bad one) - I like the challenge of coming up with a new starter word every day so Wordle doesn’t start to seem like a rote, mechanical task. Mike Mahardy POETS, EARLY, STEAM, BOILS, SPOUT, COUNT, WOUND, STEAK I’m like a starting-word Robin Hood, if Robin Hood just kept everything he stole, and were nothing like me at all. Also, I stole “roast” from Nicole Carpenter and “ouija” from Toussaint. But, I’m also human, which means I do have fallback words for those mornings after I scored in five or six tries the previous day. Like several people at Polygon, I revel in the uncertainty of a new word each day. Oli Welsh ROAST, TEARS, MEATS, OUIJA, PIZZA And I miss the thrill of trying to intuit something with a first guess out of the blue. It’s strategic but it has no flair it’s almost cheap.

But I’m not sure I like playing Wordle this way. It appeals to the puzzle-solving, min-maxing side of my brain. It rarely draws a blank and usually gives you a decent lead on the second line. It has the two most important vowels, and arguably the two most important consonants to identify or rule out. That said, if I’ve decided to Wordle before coffee, I’ll default to one of these words that seem to check those Wheel of Fortune “top letter” boxes. Peace is knowing the goal of Wordle is not to get the correct word in the fewest turns, but to get the job done in the space provided. Toussaint Egan READY, PEARS, CHIEF, TOUCHīig fan of never playing the same word twice. I’ve fallen off the Wordle bandwagon over the past week, but my go-to strategy is to start with a five-letter word with as many vowels as possible so as to figure out the general composition of the day’s word. The first is to knock out four vowels in one go and the second is because how funny would it be to get that on the first try? Disclaimer: I definitely got that idea from someone on Twitter, but it’s too good. It’s more fun, in my opinion, to throw random ideas in there and see if you happen to get some leads. That said, I wouldn’t call myself a big strategy person. The more common letters are to see if I can nail down the shape of a word, with those less common ones for process of elimination - just trying to avoid the heartbreak of having four of the five letters set, and a last letter that could be a number of different options. I aim for a mix of common and uncommon letters in my first guess(es). FRAME, GRAZE, WINDY, PAINT, GOURD, SWING, VAPES If you want a variety of vowels, the word “ ouija” has all but E (and sometimes Y) and is a good starter word, even though J is one of the least frequently used letters in English words, according to the aforementioned analysis.įor those less interested in pure optimization, here’s how Wordle players at Polygon start the puzzle each day. (If the words mentioned earlier in this paragraph come back all gray, maybe try “lurch” or “cloud” for another set of frequently used distinct letters.) There are more English-language words that start with S than any other letter, so a starting word that begins with S is also a good first guess.

So starting words like “ ratio,” “ irate,” “ stain,” or “ stare” that include those commonly used letters are great options. Similarly, you should probably avoid starting the daily puzzle with a word like “qapik,” “queue,” or “qajat” - all accepted by Wordle - because they use less common letters in English words and feature repeated vowels.Īccording to one analysis, the letter E appears most frequently in English-language words featured in a condensed version of the Oxford Dictionary, followed by A, R, I, O, T, N, and S. Ideally, you would use a five-letter word with five distinct and commonly used letters on your first guess, like “ arise” or “ roast.” What’s the best five-letter word to start with when trying to solve the daily Wordle? Some of us have go-to words we rely on to maximize our word-guessing and puzzle-solving skills, and there are some statistically advantageous starting words that feature a variety of commonly used letters.

Letters to words