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Wordle tips, starting words and strategies – How to play the viral word game

Wordle continues to take the internet by storm, so how can you compete with the best?

Updated: Jan 31, 2022 3:56 pm
Wordle tips, starting words and strategies – How to play the viral word game

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If you’ve been on the internet in the last few months, chances are you’ve heard of Wordle. If not, or you have simply been trying to avoid it, it’s a word game in which people try to guess a five-letter word within six tries. Think Mastermind but with letters. Anyway, more on what Wordle actually is here. On this page, we’re going to try and give you a few tips and pointers to help you on your way. You don’t have to take our advice at all, of course, but if you’re looking to change up your Wordle strat, here are some ideas.

Best starter word in Wordle

how to play Wordle starter word tips strategies most used letters

To use the same starter word or not? It’s the main debate among Wordle players – do you start with the same word every day, in the hopes that perhaps it might even be the chosen word one day, or pick a different one every day? And if you do stick with the same starter daily, which is the best one to use?

Well, different players have different opinions on this one. And while we are giving you tips here, we’re also going to keep it quite varied so you can try what you like the look of.

Multiple vowels

The first option to go with is a word that features multiple vowels. If there’s one thing you can almost guarantee is that the Wordle word will include at least one vowel. As such, starting with words like Audio or Adieu will most likely let you know which vowels you’re going to be using as they both feature four of the five. Right off the bat, one of your biggest questions is answered. However, there’s still a lot of other letters left to choose from in your remaining five guesses.

Most popular letters

That being said, another popular option is to start with a word that contains some of the most popular letters. Anyone familiar with the likes of hangman or Scrabble will know that some of the most common words in the English language are E, N, A, T, I, S, O, L, R. As such, you could start with words like Trail, Tears, Solid, Train, Stain or other similar words that include a lot of these popular letters. This way, you’ll quickly find out which, if any, of these popular letters are in your word, and eliminate any that aren’t. In fact, using all letters from this list, apparently the best word to use is Irate. That’s according to TikTok user LinguisticDiscovery, due to these being all five of the most used letters in the English language.

Least popular letters

OK, so this isn’t advice for your best starting word necessarily, but it’s worth bearing in mind what some of the less popular letters are. As we’ve already experienced on a number of occasions, some Wordle words will include some of the less frequent letters, so you can’t discount them completely. They’re also harder to squeeze in later down the line. For example, one of my personal favorite starting words is actually Truck. Now, I could use Track or Trick, but I figure – while U may not appear very often – when it does, it’ll be harder to find a word with U in it later down the line. A and I, on the other hand, are pretty easy to get in somewhere. Again, this is just me and isn’t recommended by “pros”, but it’s worked fairly well for me so far. And I’m still certain “truck” is going to come up one day, so now I can never stop.

how to play Wordle starter word tips strategies most used letters

Getting desperate? Waste a guess

My final advice is one which has got me out of a couple of tricky (or should that be trucky?) Wordle situations thus far. And that’s throwing a guess. While we’ve mostly talked about trying to guess which letters will be in the word, it’s almost equally as useful to eliminate as many as possible, too. For example, you’re on guess three or four and your mind is blank. Maybe you have yellows but very few greens in place. Getting rid of as many unused letters as possible could really save the day. Therefore, don’t worry too much about getting your yellow and green letters in this one guess. In fact, try and find a word with as many unused and popular letters in it as possible, and you might find you end up with all five letters between your guesses, making it much easier to decipher the full word.

So, do you stick with the first word every day or not?

Well, this one doesn’t really come down to technique. More just how daring you are. I, for one, am not. As I briefly mentioned above, I now cannot stray from my starting word as I just don’t want it to come up that one day I don’t use it.

So, does this help or were you already doing these things? Is there any word here you’re thinking of trying (maybe in the whole copy, not just the suggested ones!)? Let us know your top tips for Wordle success in the comments below.


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