1. Open with common consonants, not just vowels
Your first guess should split the possible answers as evenly as possible. Words like RAISE, SLATE and STARE leave around 200 candidates on average, while vowel-heavy favorites such as ADIEU leave more than twice that. See the full ranking on our best starting words page.
2. Use your second guess to explore
If your opener returns mostly gray, don't rush to reuse the few letters you found. A second word made of five fresh, common letters — for example COUNT after RAISE — usually reveals far more. Two complementary openers cover ten of the most frequent letters.
3. Move yellow letters to new positions
A yellow tile tells you two things: the letter is in the word, and it is not in that spot. Placing it somewhere new tests a second position for free.
4. Watch out for double letters
About a third of common five-letter words repeat a letter (think SHALL, EERIE or SPOON). If you're stuck with a few known letters and nothing fits, consider a repeat. When a guess with two copies of a letter shows only one colored, the answer contains exactly one.
5. Escape the “one letter off” trap
Patterns like _IGHT or _ATCH can match eight or more words. Guessing them one at a time can cost you the game. Instead, play a word that tests several of the possible first letters at once: for _IGHT, a guess like MELTS checks M, E, L, T and S together and rules out most of RIGHT, MIGHT, NIGHT, LIGHT, FIGHT, EIGHT, TIGHT and SIGHT in one move. The Wordle Solver finds these splitting words automatically.
6. Think about letter positions
English five-letter words have strong habits: S often starts a word, E, Y and T love the end, and A is most common in the second position. Use these tendencies when deciding where to place yellow letters.
7. Prefer common words when you go for the win
Puzzle answers are almost always familiar words, and rarely plurals ending in S. When two words fit equally well, guess the more everyday one first.
8. Play Hard Mode deliberately
In Hard Mode every revealed hint must be reused, so exploring is harder. Choose openers that are strong on their own, and when several candidates remain, pick the one that also brings in the most common untested letters. Toggle Hard mode in the helper to get only legal suggestions.
9. Review what each guess taught you
After each game, enter your guesses in the helper and look at how many words each one left. You'll quickly see which moves were efficient and which were lucky — the fastest way to improve.
Keep practicing
Need a word that fits a pattern? Try the 5-letter word finder. Stuck mid-game? The Wordle Helper gives you one hint at a time.