Best Word to Start Wordle — Ultimate Ideas

If you haven't been living under a rock for the last few months, chances are you've heard of and tried the popular online word game Wordle. A relatively simple game that has a surprising amount of depth to it, Wordle requires you to find a new five letter word each day by a process of trial, error, and the process of elimination.

If you play the game on a regular basis, chances are you've asked yourself the same question hundreds of players have — what is the best first word for Wordle?

What is Best First Word for Wordle?

Since taking the world by storm late last year, Wordle has become a daily activity for many, and while the game has some critics, it has far more avid fans who come back to it every day.

Although a bit of a meta has developed due to the age of the game and sheer number of people playing Wordle every day, there's still a lot of debate among community members as to what the starting word should be — especially due to the complete randomness of the English language and Wordle answers in general.

Therefore, it is very important to have a solid strategy and to know some of the best starting words for Wordle. Below are some of the best tips and tricks to improve the success rate of your initial guess:

Understand Letter Frequency

In the English language, some letters appear much more frequently than others, and your first guess should ideally have some of these.

For example, the letter "S" is much more common in the English dictionary than other consonants such as "K" or "J," while the vowel "E" recurs much more than the vowels "A" or "I." It is important to know all the common letters, as these are the ones most likely to be a part of the word.

All vowels are essentially common in terms of frequency, but there is a hierarchy. Following the aforementioned "E," "A" and "I" are pretty much tied, with "O" coming closely behind and "U" bringing up the rear.

Meanwhile, common consonants include "S," "T," "D," "R," "N," and "L," with the two most common consonants in the English dictionary being N and R.

There are many five letter words that contain a combination of the most common letters, and some of the most effective and popular starting words are "RATED," "STARE," "SALET," "CRANE," "ADIEU," and "ARISE."

Focus on Getting the Vowels Early

Because of the fact that almost all 5 letter English words have anywhere between one to four vowels, finding these early can help you unlock quite a lot about the puzzle. Starting with a word that has two vowels or more is a Wordle starting strategy used by many, and with good reason.

A word like "ADIEU," "AUDIO," "ARISE," or "OUIJA" are all vowel heavy with four or three vowels, which should narrow things down for you and reduce the number of guesses you need to almost certainly crack the first few couple of of the word.

If your first guess does not yield results, your second guess will, and failing that, you will automatically know that there's a "Y" in the word — all within just two guesses.

Have a Comfort Starting Word

If you use the same word to start your puzzle a few times, you will begin to develop a rhythm, and eventually become used to wracking your brain for the same remaining letters for possible answers.

It's not necessary that this will be the right word to start with every time, but it will give you a good measure of where you are heading next.

Have a Follow-up Word for your Starting Words

One of the most important Wordle strategies is to have some subsequent guesses ready for your first word.

This way, if your previous guess did not yield any results, your next guess can be something that contains another set of letters that appear frequently.

For example, if "ARISE" was your starting word and got zero hits, you can follow it up with "COULD." You are effectively covering all the vowels and some important consonants, and will almost certainly have one or more one yellow or green letters.

Change Things Around

As there are many thousands of five letter words in the English language, it's a good strategy to not to use the same word every single time. Moreover, the Wordle answer for each day is usually quite different from the last, so an effective Wordle strategy is to switch things around.

For instance, if you started with "RATED" and got three hits right off the bat today, you might want to start with something like "BOILS" for tomorrow's game. At the end of the day, there's no fixed best word to start Wordle, so moving things around isn't a completely outlandish idea.

That being said, make sure you stick to the letter frequency tactic. Starting off with a word like "SQUIB" is unlikely to do you any favors.

Know the Language

This might sound like a no-brainer, but the more you know about English — and we don't just mean having a big vocabulary — the more likely you will be to succeed at Wordle.

For instance, if there are vowels in a word that also has a "Y," the latter will most likely be at the end of the word, such as "NASTY," "RISKY," and "BULLY."

Additionally, if there is an "H" in the word, it is much more likely that it will be in the first two or fifth slots. Three cases in which this is accurate are "HEIST," "SHAME," and "TOUGH."

More Wordle Tips and Tricks

With the idea of the best starting word at your disposal, it's time to dive into the nitty-gritty of Wordle.

The internet has page after page and article after article about so-called best Wordle tips and tricks, but not all of them are reliable. Instead of conducting a search, take a look at our advice and you should be golden.

How to Deal With Duplicate Letters

One of the biggest shocks in the game is getting your first duplicate letter situation when you're unaware that such a thing exists. In fact, even when you are aware of them, they always come as a nasty surprise and are one of the biggest annoyances in the game.

The most important thing to remember is to not go hunting for possible duplicate letters right off the bat. These are rare, and should be treated as such.

Try to exhaust other possible solutions before you try these — unless it's the obvious answer, of course. For instance, if you have "SLE-P," there's no way that fourth letter will be anything except another E.

Avoid Repeating Grey and Yellow Letters

This might sound like a no brainer, but you would be surprised by how common this error is. There's no time limit on the game, so taking time to iron out mistakes is key. Check the puzzle thoroughly before you enter your next word.

Playing on Hard Mode

Hard mode is essentially the toughest challenge Wordle can offer. Basically, you absolutely must use every yellow or green letter you have already discovered for all subsequent attempts. While you can essentially place the yellows anywhere, you must put green ones exactly where they have been found to be accurate.

This can be a real pain in the neck when the letters you haven't found can be any from a wide range of options. Say you have "STO-E" on the third try and only need the last word to complete your puzzle. It could essentially be stone, stoke, store, stole, stope, or stove. In a game with just 6 guesses, you can't use three words to find one of 6 possible results with no wiggle room.

On Normal mode, you could have used one of your chances to play "PRANK" to either find the right letter or get four of them out of the equation. On Hard, it can sometimes come down to luck.

Using All 6 Rows

You have 6 rows to work with, so make them count. Like we explained in the previous tip, you can use an entire guess to exclude all the letters that you have already gotten right and narrow down the possibilities with a word that only contains letters that could possibly fit into your unsolved slot or slots.