How to Play Wordle — Strategy, Tips and Today's Free Daily Puzzle

Wordle is the daily 5-letter word guessing game that became a worldwide phenomenon. Over 4 million people play it every single day, and it's consistently one of the most searched games on the internet. Here's everything you need to know — from the rules to the strategies that will cut your average score.

The Rules — Simple but Addictive

Wordle has exactly three rules:

1. You have 6 attempts to guess the hidden 5-letter word
2. Every guess must be a real, valid 5-letter word
3. After each guess, the tiles change colour to tell you how close you are

Understanding the Colour Hints

The colours update after the entire row is submitted — you type all 5 letters and press Enter. You don't get letter-by-letter feedback.

The Best Starting Words

Information theory suggests the ideal opening guess eliminates as many possibilities as possible. The best starting words cover the most common letters in 5-letter English words — E, A, R, T, O, I, N, S, L, C.

Some consistently recommended starters:

• CRANE — covers C, R, A, N, E — five extremely common letters
• SLATE — S, L, A, T, E — strong vowel and consonant mix
• STARE — S, T, A, R, E — similar coverage
• ARISE — hits four of the five most common vowels
• RAISE — R, A, I, S, E — pure information-gathering word

The best strategy is to use a different starting word each day, or to use the same starter consistently to build pattern recognition over time.

Strategy by Attempt Number

Guess 1 — Maximum information

Use your best starting word. Don't try to guess the answer on guess 1 — focus on covering as many different letters as possible. Include at least 2 vowels.

Guess 2 — Cross-reference the feedback

Use the colour hints from guess 1. If you got greens, keep those letters in place. If you got yellows, move them to different positions. Try to introduce 4–5 new letters you haven't tested yet.

Guesses 3–4 — Converge on the answer

By now you should have eliminated most of the alphabet. Focus on words that satisfy all your yellow constraints (letter must be in the word) and green constraints (letter must be in that position). Don't waste a guess on a word that ignores your known information.

Guesses 5–6 — Play it safe

If you're down to your last 2 guesses and there are multiple possible answers, try to pick a word that eliminates the most remaining options. A "sacrifice guess" that you know isn't the answer can rule out several alternatives at once.

The Duplicate Letter Trap

One of the most common mistakes is assuming a letter doesn't repeat just because you've tested it once. Words like SPEED, BLOOM, LEVEL, and ERROR all have repeated letters. Grey feedback on a letter only means it doesn't appear in any untested position — if you've only tried it once, it might appear a second time elsewhere.

If you have most of the word but can't pin down one position, consider that the answer might reuse a letter you've already found.

Hard Mode

Hard mode requires you to use all revealed hints in subsequent guesses. Every green must stay in place, every yellow must be used again. It's genuinely harder — you can't play a "clean" elimination guess. Recommended only once you're consistently getting answers in 3–4 guesses on normal mode.

Why is Everyone Playing Wordle?

Wordle's genius is its constraint. One puzzle per day. Everyone plays the same word. You can share your result as a spoiler-free emoji grid and compare with friends. That combination of shared challenge, social sharing, and just-enough difficulty hits a perfect sweet spot. Over 5 billion games were played on the NYT version in 2024 alone.

Track Your Stats

Good Wordle players track their guess distribution. The world average is roughly: 1% solve in 1 guess, 6% in 2, 21% in 3, 35% in 4, 25% in 5, 8% in 6, and about 4% don't finish. Consistently averaging 3–4 guesses puts you in the top quartile worldwide.