Are you familiar with Wordle? This language game is incredibly simple: guess a 5-letter word in a maximum of 6 tries. Like Mastermind, at each turn, a colour code indicates whether the letters are in the right place, should go elsewhere in the word, or are simply not in the target word at all.
Fans of the American game show Lingo with Bill Engvall will recognize this gameplay, which dates back to the first version of the show broadcast in 1987.
As to the dazzling success of the online game, it can be explained, among other things, by its accessibility and its formula: there is only one puzzle per day and it’s the same for everyone who participates, so you can share your results to compare them with those of others.
If you ever need a hand to start the game or to solve it, Antidote’s powerful dictionary search engines are at your disposal. Here’s how to use them wisely.
Listing Five-Letter Words
In Wordle, each game is based on a 5-letter word. If you need inspiration for your initial guess, use the advanced search to view words with a specific number of letters.
Click the magnifying glass icon () to add the search filter Number of letters, then specify equals and enter 5.
By default, Antidote ranks the results by relevance. That is, the most frequent words first. It is therefore not that surprising to see take on the first page of results. Doesn’t take have only four letters? Indeed, but some of its inflections do have five. Under the verb take, you will find takes, and taken.
If you prefer to remove inflections from the results, uncheck the box in the left column.
You can even create a favourites list composed of five different letters, because the variety of letters will give you an advantage at the start of the game.
Filtering the Results Between Tries
Disclaimer: From here on, the tips we show you give far more specific results. Use them wisely to get out of a dead end rather than finding the answer directly, which would take all the fun out of the game!
With the search by criteria function in the Antidote dictionaries, you can filter results according to both letters that are present and letters that are absent in the word. After a guess in the game, bring back the clues discovered by the colour codes. Then choose a new word to try from the new list of results.
Let’s look at an example. For a green or yellow letter, we use the criterion Word with the parameter contains; for a gray letter, does not contain. After each try, we add one or more criteria.
To speed up this process, you can even tell Antidote the precise position of a letter in green, thanks to the search with variables, described in the next section.
Once we’ve entered the search criteria after the fourth try, only one word remains in the results list, whereas the initial search for five-letter words turned up more than 10,000 results. This is a great example of the search power of Antidote’s dictionaries! It’s also the somewhat dishonest recipe for success every time. 😈
Searching With Variables: An Additional Advantage
Antidote has another very useful tool: search with variables. This can help you when you already know the position of certain letters.
We used “plea?” after the fifth try in the example above. A question mark “?” replaces a single character. The asterisk “*” represents a series of characters, i.e. any letter or any group of letters. So, if we had succeeded in confirming the position of the e from the beginning with the word pleat for example, we could have, after the first try, typed “??e??” or “*e*”. There are many ways to arrive at the correct answer!
That being said, the choice to use these search tips in your daily game or not is yours. It’s up to you to draw the line between hinting, troubleshooting... and cheating. Happy puzzling!
Guessing the vowels first will help narrow down your future guesses. Every 5-letter word has at least one vowel, so vowels are a great starting point. Including at least three vowels in your first word can help you get the most yellow and green letters up front and make your next guesses easier.
Looking broadly at the data, most players seem to choose a word with at least two vowels that contains at least one letter from their first guess. Some solvers may prefer a start with two words, which we know because popular starting words like AUDIO, STARE and TRAIN appear in the top 20 second guesses as well.
To solve Wordle as efficiently as possible, try words that include the letters e, t, a, i, o, n, s, h, and r; these are the most common letters in English. Another great trick is to begin with words that start with the letters t, a, o, d, and w; as again, these are the most common starting letters in English.
Moreover, save for U, all the other letters are in the Top 10, with E being the most commonly used letter in English words. Since there are five vowels in the alphabet, being able to determine whether they are used in a Wordle puzzle drastically gives players better odds.
Sometimes it seems pretty easy and others not so much. Here are the 5 "Magic" Words that will help you solve Wordle more often than not. "Derby, flank, ghost, winch, jumps."
For Normal mode, SLATE, SALET, ROATE and STARE are known to be some of the best alternative starting words for Wordle. For Hard mode, DEALT is believed to be the best Wordle starting word. However, COALS and NITER were found to be the best performing word pair combination for the opening two guesses.
More people solve Wordle on their first guess than can be explained by chance. In the list above, we excluded first guesses that were that day's Wordle solution. That's because, about one game in every 250, a reader gets the answer right on the first try.
For instance, researchers at MIT have published a paper that they say definitively confirms the best Word to start Wordle as… SALET. If you're not sure what SALET means then you're in good company, because I didn't either. Apparently it's a 15th-century helmet, but more importantly Wordle does accept it as a guess.
PARER was introduced as a Wordle solution on September 16, 2022. Almost one in two players fail to solve this word as it has a 48% failure rate. Furthermore, it broke 60% of World streaks on the day of its release.
Most people should, on average, get it in at least 4, even on days where it is harder. Especially if you aren't making risky moves, four guesses should supply you with enough information to make a correct guess.
What Is a 5-Letter Word With the Most Vowel? Vowels in the English language include “a,” “e,” “i,” “o,” and “u.” Surprisingly, if you combine them, you'll get the 5-letter word with the most vowel — iouea. And, yes, it's a real word, albeit rarely used. “Iouea” refers to an extinct sponge.
Wordle is a lot like Wheel of Fortune in that it's best to start with the more common consonants first to help solve it. Try using words that have S, T, R, N, or other popular non-vowels. If you're using a lot of different letters in your first couple of guesses, it makes solving the puzzle a little easier.
Proposed Strategy. 's belief, there actually exist such words. They are: The 5 magic words for Wordle word coverage: brick, glent, jumpy, vozhd, waqfs.
First guess is always a word with 3 vowels like AGILE, ADIEU or ABOUT. Second guess is a word with 5 different, common letters like BONER, BIRTH or CUPID. By the third guess the answer is usually obvious.
In Wordle, players have six tries to guess a five-letter word. After a word is entered, colored tiles reveal whether the letters are in the word and if they are in the correct spot. The model solves the game in just two guesses 4% of the time and in three guesses 57% of the time.
One combination of the best 3 starting words for wordle is to play RATIO, followed by MENDS and then LUCKY. RATIO provides three common vowels, MENDS offers a fourth vowel in addition to four common consonants while LUCKY includes the final vowel and the letter “Y” in the final position.
Introduction: My name is Rev. Leonie Wyman, I am a colorful, tasty, splendid, fair, witty, gorgeous, splendid person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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