Master Wordle: strategy guide

Best starting words

Your opening word sets up everything that follows. These options each favour a different approach:

ADIEU AUDIO STARE RAISE SLATE CRANE

ADIEU and AUDIO each contain four vowels, useful for quickly narrowing down the vowel pattern. STARE, RAISE, SLATE and CRANE balance common consonants with vowels for a more even split of information. Want to check whether a word you're considering is valid? Try the word finder.

Letter frequency

These are the most common letters across five-letter English words - useful to keep in mind when choosing your next guess:

E
12.0%
T
9.1%
A
8.1%
O
7.7%
I
7.3%
N
7.0%

Advanced strategies

1

Pattern recognition

Look for common endings like -ING, -TION or -ABLE. Many answers follow standard English patterns.

2

Elimination strategy

Use your second guess to rule out as many letters as possible, even without full confidence in the word.

3

Position mapping

Track which letters can't be in certain positions - it narrows things down faster than it seems.

4

Common endings

Words ending in -ED, -ER, -LY or -ES come up often. Worth keeping in reserve for later guesses.