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Best Wordle starting words

If you’re seeing green and yellow squares every time you close your eyes, chances are you have a slight obsession with Wordle. The latest mini-game to take over the Internet has plenty of us guessing five-letter words in as few tries as possible, and boy is it a hit. The team here at TheSmartLocal hasn’t been spared from the addictive daily quiz either.

To uphold our reputation as wordsmiths, we decided to find out which are the best words to start Wordle with. Thankfully, plenty of data scientists – who are equally addicted – have done research into the most optimised five-letter word for us. Here are 10 of the most efficient starters for your next Wordle round.

1. Crane

Wordle’s all about probability, and that involves numbers. Thankfully, popular maths YouTuber Grant Sanderson did all the work to calculate how “CRANE” is the best opener. The New York Times’ WordleBot also deduced that “CRANE” is the best opening word in normal mode.

Reason: Grant calculated which starting word would give you the lowest average guesses using the Wordle answer sheet, while the NYT used a sample of 4,500 commonly-used English words to get their results.

Best second word: SLIPT

2. Salet

Mathematician Alex Selby devised an algorithm that determined “SALET” is the best word to start Wordle off.

Reason: Alex’s algorithm determined that Salet took the least average guesses of 3.4212 to guess the word of the day. Popular math YouTube Grant Sanderson from the popular Crane video also corroborated this conclusion with a follow-up analysis.

Best second word: CRONY

3. Soare

Wordle’s all about probability, and that involves numbers. More than seven million people watched YouTuber Grant Sanderson’s video on why Crane is the best Wordle starting word. Unfortunately, he got one tiny detail wrong and uploaded a follow-up video naming “SOARE” as the best opener instead.

Reason: Grant calculated which starting word would give you the lowest average guesses using the Wordle answer sheet and determined Soare is the best single-try opener. Yes, all the answers for Wordle are already figured out, but where’s the fun in that?

Best second word: CLINT

4. Trace

Data analysts have also entered the chat. Researcher Daniel Kats analysed the Wordle dictionary and arrived at “TRACE” as the word with the lowest average guesses to solve.

Reason: Based on his analysis of an asymmetric dataset, Daniel found that Trace took an average of 3.58 guesses to solve.

Best second word: SULLY

5. Serai

Another word from Daniel’s analysis and his pocket pick for a starter is “SERAI.”

Reason: S is the most common letter amongst all five-letter words, plus it is also the most common as a first and last letter.

Best second word: POUTY

6. Arose

Another YouTuber MrExcel.com who specialises in Excel and statistics looked at 8,000 five-letter Scrabble words and ended up with “AROSE.”

Reason: A, E, O, R, and S are the letters most commonly found in his analysis of words, and together they spell “arose.” Another option to start off is “ARISE.”

Best second word: JUICY

7. Tales

Being an expert in something requires experience, and a professor called Barry Smyth found a way to shortcut this by using a Wordle simulator. He ran a million games through it – more than we’ll play in a lifetime – and found that “TALES” was the best single word.

Reason: From 2,500 possible five-letter words, this simulation found that “TALES” had a success rate of over 95% averaging 3.66 rounds when using just one word to start the game.

Best second word: CRONY

8. Cones

If you’re okay with using at least two rounds to solve the word of the day, “CONES” is the second-best word Professor Barry found success with in his simulation.

Reason: “CONES” had a higher solve rate of 96% when paired with Trial as the second word. Using both words to kick off your daily Wordle will help you solve it in an average of 3.68 rounds.

Best second word: TRAIL

9. Hates

Another word coming out from the professor’s simulation is “HATES.” Players who guess it first, followed by “ROUND” and then “CLIMB” would see a higher success rate.

Reason: While you might only guess the word on the fourth try, using Hates, then Round, and then Climb help you solve it 97% of the time.

Best second word: ROUND
Best third word: CLIMB

10. Audio

“AUDIO” is a community favourite that we’ve seen said by many as their go-to starting word.

Reason: It checks off four different vowels and it’s a commonly-used term.

Best second word: STERN

11. Adieu

No, we didn’t forget about “ADIEU,” but it’s not as efficient of a word as you might think.

Reason: Like Audio, you can find out if the daily Wordle has any vowels immediately. However, it’s not that common of a word, and you should only use it if your strategy involves getting vowels and common consonants out of the way.

Best second word: SNORT

Other good starting words to use for Wordle

Dealt
Roate
Store
Stare
Pious
Ouija
Aisle
Ocean
About

Tips to guess Wordle’s word

Think simple and common. Of the 13,000 words that you can key into Wordle, only 2,315 are possible answers as they are common words, not “aargh.” You can also try to hit common consonants like R, S, and T as it might benefit you more than vowels. While you’re at it, remember that letters can repeat, so don’t be afraid to guess “BUNNY” or “HAPPY.” The New York Times even developed WordleBot to help analyse your answers and give you advice for future Wordles.

If all else fails, you can turn to Unwordle. This website tells you the best word to guess next. It kind of goes against the spirit of Wordle, so use this only as a last resort if you can’t think of a word anymore!

Best words to start Wordle with

Everyone I’ve spoken to has a different strategy when it comes to Wordle. Some people start with a different word every day, while others are determined to guess it in the least attempts possible. There’s no right or wrong way to play the game, but if you’re in the “minimum effort, maximum reward” camp, here’s a list that will keep your Wordle streak going.

Check out similar articles:

Play Squabble with your friends
Free online multiplayer games
Unique board and card games

Originally published on 11th February 2022. Last updated by Josiah Neo on 19th April 2022.

Источник

Wordle, the daily word guessing game, is taking Twitter, the world, and my relationship by storm.

If you haven’t heard of it—how?—the rules are simple. Every day there’s a new five-letter word (a Wordle.) You get six attempts to guess it, and after each one the color of the tiles change to tell you whether a letter was in the word and in the right place (green), in the word but not in the right place (yellow), or not in the word (gray.)

These limitations are what make Wordle so fun. Everyone in the world (and, in particular, in my house) is attempting to guess the same word in the fewest number of guesses. What’s clever is you can share your progress after you succeed—but all the letters are disguised as colored blocks. So you can gloat without giving anything away.

But never let it be said there’s a game that can’t be beaten (or, according to my girlfriend, ruined) with a bit of research, analysis, and time. So, if you’ve ever wondered what the best strategy is for winning at Wordle, let’s break it down.

Letter Distribution in the English Language

Letter frequency analysis is the study of how often and where letters occur in words. It’s pretty foundational to cryptography, because if you have to decode a secret message like we’re kind of doing with Wordle, it’s useful to know that you are more likely to see an E than a Q.

While exact letter frequency distribution changes based on the source text, the most common letters don’t really change.

Peter Norvig, director of research at Google, used the data from Google Books to come up with this list of the top 12 most common letters in the English language:

E (in 12.49 percent of words)
T (9.28 percent )
A (8.04 percent)
O (7.64 percent)
I (7.57 percent)
N (7.23 percent)
S (6.51 percent)
R (6.28 percent)
H (5.05 percent)
L (4.07 percent)
D (3.82 percent)
C (3.34 percent)

There’s one issue with this list for us Wordlers, though. It’s based on a natural-language source text, which means the word the kind of messes things up for us. The is by far the most common word in the English language, representing 7.14 percent of all words in the Google Books source text, followed by of (4.16 percent), and (3.04 percent), and to (2.6 percent). This means the position of T and H in the list are higher than they should be.

Another option is to just look at the distribution of letters in dictionary words. An analysis of the Concise Oxford Dictionary (9th Edition, 1995) found the 12 most common letters were:

E (in 11.16 percent of words)
A (8.45 percent)
R (7.58 percent)
I (7.54 percent)
O (7.16 percent)
T (6.95 percent)
N (6.65 percent)
S (5.74 percent)
L (5.49 percent)
C (4.54 percent)
U (3.63 percent)
D (3.38 percent)

While this list isn’t perfect either, since it uses an almost-20-year-old British English dictionary as its source, between the two we can use our judgment and creativity to come up with great Wordle starting words.

The Best Words to Start With

There are a couple of things we have to keep in mind when coming up with our Wordle starting words:

Each guess had to be an actual five-letter word.
Each guess does not have to include letters that you know are in the Wordle.
Overall letter frequency doesn’t mean each letter is likely to occur in the same words. Neither ETAOI or EARIO are words, despite being the most common letters on each list in descending frequency order.
This is a game and meant to be fun.

So, the first word has to be five letters, and we want it to pull from the most common, say, eight letters. That means we’re working from E, T, A, O, I, N, S, and R (top eight are actually the same on both lists.)

Some good options are:

NOTES
RESIN
TARES
SENOR

But you should feel free to come up with your own.

Then for the second guess, we want to tick off any remaining letters in the top 10 (with a bit of judgment as to what they are). This means a few good options are:

If you start with NOTES, ACRID
If you start with RESIN, LOATH
If you start with TARES, CHINO
If you start with SENOR, DUCAT

Again, you should make your own here. I’d suggest using a site like Anagram Scramble to help. (I couldn’t have written this article without it.)

After those two guesses, you should have at least a few letters and be ready to start guessing based on the actual Wordle—or, as my girlfriend calls it, “playing properly.”

If This Makes It Too Easy: Hard Mode

A word of warning. If playing like this takes the fun out of things (and reliably being able to guess most words by your fourth guess can, I suppose), you should try Hard Mode.

Tap the Settings icon and then enable Hard Mode. This forces you to use any revealed letters in your subsequent guesses.

Obviously, you should still start with a sensible first guess. But Hard Mode stops you from playing letter frequency words the whole way down.

Other Wordle Tips and Tricks

Understanding letter frequencies helps a lot, but there are a few other things you should bear in mind:

Despite being hosted on a UK domain, Wordle is based on American English. If you live in Ireland (like I do), this means that six-letter-words that end in -OUR can crop up as five-letter-words that end in -OR.
Letters can, and often do, appear twice in words.
From this New York Times article, we know that developer Josh Wardle used words his wife recognized to create the list. Each one will only appear once, but you should know it.
Remember all the tips from Scrabble, like Q’s need U’s, and Z’s are uncommon. As fun as Wordle is, it’s just another word game and all the usual bits of advice apply.

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Wordle. It’s the daily word game that’s captured the world’s attention, with everyone from Richard Osman to comedian Rosie Jones trying to master the five-letter word of the day.

In fact, the game in which users have six attempts at guessing the daily word is thought to be played by three million people globally.

Created by Josh Wardle, the game was acquired by The New York Times (NYT) earlier this month for an undisclosed seven-figure sum. Not bad for the simple game Wardle created as a gift for his partner.

Since it exploded in popularity – and onto our Twitter feeds – at the beginning of the new year, people have been posting their daily scores with the telling yellow and green squares. But why are we so obsessed with the game?

Why is Wordle so popular?

“A big part is the social – and yet not really competitive – aspect of Wordle,” Lynne Murphy, professor of linguistics and head of English language and linguistics at the University of Sussex, tells The Independent.

The beauty of Wordle is that it takes only a few minutes to finish

M. Lynne Murphy, University of Sussex

“Friends compare scores but also wonder at each other’s strategies. There’s just enough information in the ‘share’ to make for an interesting post-mortem on your own attempt, but not enough to spoil the fun for others,” she adds.

It’s not the first time a word game has become popularised, as Murphy says many people in “wordy” circles were doing a similar thing with the NYT’s Spelling Bee.

She continues: “But the beauty of Wordle, and why it has taken off so much, is that it requires no subscription, takes only a few minutes to finish, and there’s only one puzzle per day. You can do it without fear that you’ll fall into a gaming hole and lose half your morning.”

Another reason behind the game’s popularity could be because you don’t need a “huge vocabulary” to participate. “The answers are words that most English speakers know. So you can’t really get angry at the puzzle when you fail to get the answer,” Murphy says.

What are the best starting words for Wordle?

Some users swear by starting each game with the same word. Usually vowel-heavy, some popular starting words include ‘ADIEU’, ‘STEAK’, ‘TREAD’, ‘TABLE’ and ‘AUDIO’.

But is this really the best tactic? Murphy, a Wordle fan who plays the game daily in three different languages, says she varies the words she starts with – but they are always consonant-heavy.

“Consonants are more informative than vowels – there are more of them to knock out of contention,” she explains. “Things like ‘CLAMP’ or ‘DRINK’, which have either an ‘L’ or an ‘R’ and either an ‘M’ or an ‘N’.

“Whereas if you guess something vowel-heavy like ‘ALIEN’ at the start, you might learn that the word has an ‘A’ and an ‘E’, but a lot of words have those two vowels – you haven’t ruled as many words out.

Consonants are more informative than vowels

M. Lynne Murphy

“I like using ‘L’, ‘R’, ‘N’, and ‘M’ (linguists call them sonorant consonants) early because they combine easily with other consonants. Once I know that a word with a ‘P’ doesn’t have an ‘L’, for instance, I’ve ruled out a lot of the possible ‘P’ words.”

Murphy says she finds it “more fun” to vary the starting word each day, or to play the previous day’s word so it “feels like a continuation” from the day before.

She adds: “I also play in two other languages that I don’t know as well, and in those I always start with the same word: LAGOM in Swedish and AVOIR in French. That’s more from a lack of vocabulary than from anything else!”

Can you be ‘good’ at Wordle?

As much as a strategy helps, Wordle is largely about luck. After all, no one besides the developers know what the word of the day will be. But why do some people seem to be “better” at it than others?

People who tend to follow language patterns could be giving themselves an advantage, as Murphy says that some patterns are more common.

“Language is all about patterns,” she continues. “We also have some awareness of some letters being more common than others, especially at the start of words. It seems to me that people do worse when it’s a word that ends in a ‘Y’, which is funny because there are lots of words that end in ‘Y’. But I think we get a bit fixated on the front end of words.”

What are the benefits of playing Wordle?

As well as the feeling of community spirit Wordle gives off, Murphy says anything that makes you think in different ways “has got to be good mental exercise”.

“Playing it makes you a bit more conscious of how English words and English spelling works. And if you play in another language with a dictionary, it can be a vocabulary booster,” she explains.

“But I’m probably more excited about it bringing some gentle fun and a shared experience to social media at a time when things can feel stressy and grim.”

Источник

You found our list of fun and simple vocabulary games for adults.

Vocabulary games are activities that include language and wordplay. Example games include Word Association and Hang Man. Players can enjoy vocabulary games in person or online. The purpose of these games is to strengthen vocabulary skills. These games are also known as “vocab games”, “letter games” and “vocabulary building games.”

These games make great online classroom activities and communication games, and can be used as online fun activities for employees.

This list includes:

vocabulary games for adults
simple vocabulary word games for adults
fun online vocabulary games and activities
English vocabulary games
vocabulary games in English
games to improve vocabulary
vocabulary building activities
vocab review games
vocabulary games for students

Get ready to play!

List of vocabulary games

From Pictionary to word scrambles to synonym memory, here is a list of fun word games to play in classrooms, at parties, or during meetings.

1. Vocabulary Pictionary

Pictionary is a game of charades where players draw words instead of acting them out.

To play:

Split the group into teams.
Each round, assign one team member to draw.
Give the drawing team member a word.
Allow up to sixty seconds for teammates to guess.
If the team guesses correctly, then assign one point.

You can give other teams the opportunity to steal, or move onto the next team’s turn. The game is a great way to practice new vocabulary, as players connect the word with an image. Pictionary is a fun game for virtual parties or in-person affairs.

To play Pictionary online, draw on the whiteboard app feature on your online meeting software.

2. Word Association

Word Association is one of the best vocabulary games for kids and classrooms since playing does not require a large vocabulary. The rules are simple and easy to understand. Typically, the game involves two players.

To play:

Player one says a word.
Player two responds with the first word that comes to mind.
Player one either chooses a new word or responds to player two’s word.
The game continues until one player repeats a word or pauses too long.

The rapid pace of the game generates excitement and occasionally results in funny answers.

If a student makes a mistake, then the teacher can pause the game and ask the student to explain or find a more fitting word. Ideally, gamemasters should allow players a few extra seconds to respond. Players should never feel embarrassed. There are no wrong answers in word association, but the game can serve as a learning opportunity to find better words.

If playing via Zoom, then player one or the teacher speaks a word, and other students answer in the chat. The class counts up matching answers and discusses different responses, guessing the reasoning behind each answer.

3. Vocabulary Hangman

Hangman is a classic chalkboard word game that translates easily to online play, thanks to digital whiteboards.

To play:

Assign a player a word.
The player draws a series of blanks corresponding to the number of letters in the word.
Other players guess letters.
If the letter is in the word, then the “executioner” fills in the blank. If not, then the executioner draws one portion of the gallows.
The game ends when players guess the word, or when the picture is complete.

The best words to use for hangman contain less-used letters like z, x, and q. Examples of hard hangman words include zigzagging, razzmatazz, and quadrants.

4. Word search

Word searches are common classroom vocabulary games. These activities work well for handouts, and you can play during video calls by using the whiteboard feature and enabling annotation.

We made a sample word search you can use.

To make the game more competitive and exciting, turn the challenge into a race and award prizes to the first players to complete the puzzles.

5. Crossword

Crossword puzzles consist of a series of interconnecting boxes, each of which starts blank but contains one letter by the end of the game. Under the puzzle are two lists of clues, across and down respectively. Solvers need to consider the meaning of words, number of letters, and surrounding words, making the game strategic as well as literary.

Here is an example of a crossword puzzle you can use with your class or team.

Here is the answer key.

Crosswords are great word games for any age or skill level because puzzle makers can adjust the difficulty to suit players. To make your own crossword puzzle, use an online crossword creator.

6. Word Scramble

Word scrambles make great games for English class, and adults enjoy these language brain teasers as well. Simply mix up the order of the letters and ask players to unscramble and identify the original words.

Here is a sample to start with.

And here is the answer key.

To make your own word scrambles, use an online letter randomizer.

7. Scrabble

Scrabble is one of the most popular word games for adults or children. Players must use letter tiles to assemble words on the game board.

To play:

Each player draws seven letter tiles.
During turns, players can play tiles or exchange them for new letters.
Players build words on the board, with each new word connecting to an existing word.
Tiles have a point value assigned depending on the challenge of the letter. When a player makes a word, tally the letter and add the score to the point board.

More challenging letters have higher point values. For example, E is one point, while Z is ten. To find the point values for each tile and read more gameplay tips, check out this guide from Hasbro.

To coordinate the game for language lessons, assign higher scores for vocabulary words, and ask players to use the words in a sentence for extra points.

Scrabble is easy to play online, too, making it one of the best online vocabulary games. To play virtually, simply find a multiplayer online version of the game, such as Words With Friends.

8. Scattergories

Scattergories is one of the most fun and simple word games for adults. The game challenges players to think up words all starting with the same letter.

To play:

One player rolls a letter die or uses a letter generator to pick the first letter.
The timekeeper puts 60 seconds on the clock.
Players write down one answer per category starting with the letter.
When time runs out, players read the answers.
Players receive a point for every answer.

Alliterative phrases count for double or triple points. If two players have the same answer, then they must cross it out and neither receives points. Of course, a player will not receive points for blank answers either. At the end of each round, the player with the most points wins.

Here is a list of sample Scattergories categories:

A boy’s name, girl’s name, or gender neutral name
Capital cities
Four letter words
Types of drinks
Holidays
Careers or professions
Cartoon characters
Websites
Desserts

You could create more inventive categories for the game, or challenge players to make up prompts.

To play virtually, use the chat, screen-share, whiteboard functions in your virtual meeting platform. You can also share a Google Doc or Form, or join a multiplayer online Scattergories game together.

9. Tree or Bob Ross

Tree or Bob Ross is a fun video conference game that challenges players to guess a word by asking questions.

The player who conjures the word is The Post. The Post answers This or That questions whose answers help players narrow down the word.

The first question of the game is usually “is it more like a tree, or more like Bob Ross?” and The Post must answer accordingly. For instance, a rose is probably more like a tree, but Pinnochio presents an interesting challenge.

Each turn, the guesser adds a new word. For example, the second question might be, “is it more like a tree or a fern?” The game continues until players guess correctly. For more excitement, introduce a time limit, or award more points if players guess the word during earlier rounds.

10. Vocabulary Pyramid

Pyramid challenges players to guess words from context clues. The pyramid is a collection of six words, arranged with three on the bottom, two in the middle, and one at the top. To win, teams must guess all words within the pyramid in the allotted time.

To play:

Divide the group into teams.
Give one player on each team the pyramid.
The pyramid holder must give hints to teammates describing each word without using the actual name of the item.
When players guess correctly, the pyramid master can move to the next word. Or, players can say “pass,” and return to the word later.
Teams receive a point for every correct guess.

When determining the time limit, consider the age of your players and the difficulty of the words. In general, 30 seconds per word, or three minutes total, is a good place to start, but add or take away time to increase or decrease the challenge.

11. Invisible Bridge

Invisible Bridge is similar to six degrees of Kevin Bacon. In both games, you must figure out a way to connect two seemingly distant concepts. Six degrees of Kevin Bacon uses actors, while Invisible Bridge uses words.

To play:

A player suggests two unrelated words.
Player one gives a number of planks. This is how many steps other players must use to relate the two words.
The other players think up words that share similar traits, synonyms, or connector words to move from one term to another.

An example round might look as follows:

Tiger, Astronaut, eight planks

Tiger – Balm – Lip – Service – Customer – Happy – Pills – Capsules – Space – Astronaut

Meanwhile, Tiger, Astronaut, two planks might look like this:

Tiger – meat eater – meteor – Astronaut

One fun aspect about this game is there can be more than one correct answer, and opposing teams can dispute far-reaches. Invisible bridge encourages players to think about the nature of language and the relationship between words.

12. Poetry Improv

Poetry Improv is an exercise that challenges participants to craft verses on the spot.

To play:

Pick a poetry style, such as sonnet, haiku, acrostic, limerick, or free verse.
Give participants vocabulary words to use within the poem.
Allow five or ten minutes for groups or individuals to complete the verses. If playing online via meeting software, then send groups to breakout rooms to work.
Ask poets to share the masterpieces aloud.

For extra fun, turn other players into judges by asking them to rate the poems by holding up scorecards. To make the game more fast-paced, ask players to finish each others’ phrases on the spot for a true poetic improv.

13. Synonym Memory

The rules of Memory are easy: flip over two cards at a time and look for matching pictures or words. When players find pairs, they take the cards off the board. The player with the most pairs of cards at the end of the game wins.

Synonym Memory puts a challenging spin on the simple game. Instead of hunting for exact matches, players pair up words with synonyms.

Here are some sample matches:

enticing/tempting
assume/suppose
patience/restraint
revoke/rescind
impact/collision

The game encourages players to think in different ways, as participants will need to remember the location of the cards as well as consider meanings of words.

To play online, make your own virtual synonym memory game with an online tool and share screens to play, with one player flipping over the cards at other players’ request.

List of words to use for vocabulary games

Here is a list of great words to use in word games:

serendipity
fortitude
akimbo
sumptuous
ineffable
zephyr
incorrigible
medallion
mauve
bombast
denouement
contemporary
gossamer
inane
hippodrome
concession
ideology
quintessential
prescient
regurgitate
gnash
cataclysmic
knell

For further inspiration, use a random word generator or consult online lists of difficult or intersecting words.

Conclusion

Vocabulary games and activities test and strengthen players’ communication skills. These word games minimize frustration by disguising language lessons in the form of an exciting challenge. Not to mention, simple word games are fun for adults and kids alike, and make great icebreaker activities during meetings. Most games only require words and a way to share them, so playing word games online via Zoom or similar platforms is easy.

For even more smart fun, check out our posts on problem solving games, question games and team building brain teasers.

FAQ: Vocabulary Games

Here are answers to common questions about vocabulary games and activities.

What are vocabulary games?

Vocabulary games are word and language games you can play with students, coworkers, or family and friends. These games challenge players to hunt for words or definitions, brainstorm terms, deduce phrases based on clues, or create words under certain conditions. Language games are a great way to teach new vocabulary and help students practice recognizing and using new words. These activities are also known as “vocabulary building games” and “vocab games”, and are similar to “word games” and “letter games”.

What are some fun word games for groups?

Some fun word games for groups include Pictionary, Tree or Bob Ross, and word scrambles.

What are some online vocabulary games?

By using virtual meeting software like Zoom, you can play any word game online. Some good virtual vocabulary games include Scrabble, Scattergories, and online crossword puzzles.

What are good ESL word games?

The best ESL word games are easy to understand and play yet expand the vocabularies of participants. Good ESL word games include word association, word searches, and hangman.

What are fun ways to teach vocabulary?

Word games are one of the most fun and easy ways to teach vocabulary. While some kids get frustrated with straightforward reading or language exercises, word games disguise vocabulary lessons as a fun challenge. Plus, playing language games together is a great teamwork exercise.

Источник

Wordle is one of the biggest games of the year, and it remains incredibly popular as we move further into 2022. As people have gotten better, they’ve developed their own strategies to get words the quickest. But just what is the best starting word in Wordle? Or is there more than one?

Well, it depends on who you ask, but using a combination of our own Wordle-obsessed staff and a bit of computing, we’ve come up with this list of the best Wordle starting words so you can improve your score each day. Use this list to best your friends and family and chase those coveted two-or three-guess solutions, making you look like a genius to your family and friends. Here are our picks for the best starting words for Wordle, as well as some top tips from our most enthusiastic players.

Wordle: best starting words

If you prefer a list of the best first words for Wordle, we recommend starting any given day with these. If you’d rather hear directly from some of our Wordle-obsessed editors, be sure to check out their more specific strategies below. The key is often to quickly find vowels or common consonants that belong in each day’s word. From that starting point, we’ve identified these words as some of the very best first words for Wordle:

React
Adieu
Later
Sired
Tears
Alone
Arise
About
Atone
Irate
Snare
Cream
Paint
Worse
Sauce
Anime
Prowl
Roast
Drape
Media

My go-to strategy with Wordle is two-pronged: Concentrate on the vowels and then narrow it down with the most common consonants. I’ll start with a vowel-heavy word like ADIEU, which usually identifies at least one letter (two if I’m lucky). Based on that first try, I’ll then try and find a word that incorporates consonants like T, S, and R on the second line, and if I’m feeling particularly smart, I’ll try and fit in the vowel O somewhere as well. This strategy usually leads me to a solution by line 4 (85% of my wins in the last two weeks have been at 4), although it has led me astray once (damn you TIGER). — Randy Ramsay

I’ve loved word games for just about as long as I’ve been able to string words together, so a lot of what I pull from when I strategize in Wordle is the undisputed classic among them: Scrabble. Scrabble assigns point values to letters based on how commonly they appear in the English language, with the lowest-scoring letters being the most popular. If, like me, you’ve invested far too much time into that game, try to think of which letters have the lowest value and make sure you can squeeze ‘em in your first guess. I tend to find «ATONE» and «IRATE» are good first tries—you manage to check the puzzle for three vowels and a couple of commonly used letters in locations they typically appear in. Another tip: think in pairs as you continue. If you know an “h” is the second letter, try getting both an «s» and a «c» in your next guess, since they commonly go in front of «h.» — Jessica Howard

The premise is simple, and that’s helped make Wordle a viral sensation.

When I first started playing Wordle, I was all over the place. I would repeatedly try letters I knew weren’t there, and it took me a solid week to remember that letters could be repeated (seriously, Wordle needs some kind of indicator for repeated letters). As a seasoned player going on three weeks now, I’ve finally got my strategy. I start with ARISE, a solid word that knocks out three vowels and two common consonants. I aim to get vowels placed as quickly as possible because for some reason my brain can work around those foundations easier than consonants. I don’t understand why either, but since I’ve implemented that strategy, I typically guess the word in three or four goes and haven’t missed a single one. — Lucy James

My advice is at odds with what you’d probably expect: Don’t stress too much about it. I’m eager to guess the day’s word in as few tries as possible, but I’m mindful of not turning Wordle into a chore by trying to min/max my way to that goal. While I do try to think of words with vowels and more common letters (I stay away from X, Z, and Q), I try a different word every day and just go with the flow. I initially lamented that Wordle doesn’t let you go back and replay old puzzles, but I’ve quickly grown fond of its one-per-day-and-that’s-it structure. Over-aggressive tweeting from fellow players aside, it’s remained a relaxing treat by not taking it too seriously or worrying about using the perfect word right from the get-go. — Chris Pereira

My approach to Wordle, and many of life’s big challenges, started by looking to a group of people that I have often sought guidance and advice from, and believe to be enlightened thinkers that are unmatched by any other scholars. As expected, they gave me exactly what I was looking for: a versatile starting word that, thus far, has yielded excellent results. Of course, I am talking about the legendary Staten Island-based hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan and, naturally, the word I always begin with is C.R.E.A.M. As we all know, track eight on Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) posits that «cash rules everything around me, C.R.E.A.M. get the money, dollar dollar bill y’all.» Time has proven this adage correct, but within the context of Wordle, CREAM also gets the solution. Dollar, dollar bills y’all. —Tamoor Hussain

If all else fails and you think your current strategy just doesn’t work no matter what, you could always go the route of this devoted player:

I do FARTS because if the word is ever FARTS and I get it on the first try it will be the best day of my life.

— Ryan McComb (@ryan__mccomb) January 3, 2022

Good luck with your next puzzle, fellow Wordle nerds!

Mark Delaney on Google+

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