Even with the recent NY Times acquisition, Wordle hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down. The once-a-day five-lettered word puzzle has been captivating our hearts since late 2021.
New to the latest viral trend? Check out our getting started on Wordle guide to partake in the latest word game action.
Solving the daily word puzzle can be trickier than it looks. You’re essentially playing a word detective with limited moves, which is a lot to ask for on-the-go play. But don’t be intimidated. We, here at AP, have streamlined the detective process for you with our detailed tips and strategies guide, pointing you in the correct direction to become a master-class word detective in no time.
Becoming a detective
Learning how to optimize your word guesses is key to sniffing out clues. Remember, you’re only given six attempts to figure out the word of the day. Your first few guesses should be designed to uncover as much information as possible. In contrast, your remaining guesses should be used to string this information together through the process of elimination.
Finding that starter word
Finding your starting word is the most challenging but crucial step.
In the English language, words are comprised of vowels and consonants, and much like Wheel of Fortune, vowels are very important to solving word puzzles. Narrowing down your letter choices is the hard part. Lucky for you, the Concise Oxford English Dictionary has published the top 10 most common letters found in English words. You’ll notice 4 out of 5 (in the top 5) are vowels, ‘A,’ ‘E,’ ‘I,’ and ‘O,’ while consonants’ ‘R’ are sandwiched within. Going further down the list, ‘T,’ ‘N,’ ‘S,’ ‘L,’ and ‘C,’ all make it in.
Best practice means you create a starting word with the most common vowels while filling it with those consonants listed above to create an actual word that can be entered into the first five-letter field.
Some examples ‘ARISE,’ ‘RAISE,’ ‘ATONE,’ ‘CANOE,’ and ‘OCEAN’ fit this set criteria. You’ll notice each word has at least three vowels in it. It’s a good tactic to use words that have 2-3 of these vowels right off the bat.
Clue hunting on your second and third attempt
After entering your starting word, you gain a good amount of knowledge. If you have at least one green letter and a few yellows – you are in decent standing for finding the word of the day. Focus on information hunting using the clues (the letter colors on the board) you gained from your starting word to make educated guesses for your second and third attempts. Use the remaining ten most common letters to form these words while utilizing the revealed clues each step of the way.
Tip: When working with yellow letters, it is easier to find words when you know the first or last two letters, so try to use yellow letters to fit the start or the end of a word.
Remember, you are always looking to maximize information. Don’t stress about guessing the word in your first couple of attempts. It’s a lot easier to form the word in the last few guesses once you’ve gathered enough hints.
Process of elimination in your remaining attempts
The final step is forming your last words with all the hints gained from your previous guesses. Knocking out the potential common letters, leaving you with a trail of clues for your last few guesses.
Once you’re dry on letters to assemble words from, it’s time to consider multiple lettering. These are letters that appear in more than one place in a word. Some examples ‘ENTER’, ‘PROOF,’ and ‘FLUFF’ all have duplicate letters two Es in ‘ENTER,’ two Os in ‘PROOF,’ and three Fs in ‘FLUFF.’ You don’t want to necessarily open up with these assumptions since you’re trying to optimize your letter usage in your earlier guesses, but never discount this possibility when you’re down to the last few guesses.
Final tips
- Don’t assume plurals at the start; this is rarely the case.
- Use familiar words only; avoid names and locations.
- Take into consideration that the creator is Welsh-born, so British origin words are a possibility.
- Experiment with words: Wordle won’t accept words not found in the game’s official list, keeping these attempts unused.
- Consult the dictionary to check for useful words.
Applying a strategy
Next up, let’s review some examples to determine how well a detective strategy can be applied.
Example 1: Effectively using a process of elimination strategy
- Our starter word ‘RAISE’ has three vowels and two common consonants.
- First attempt: E is in the right place, now investigate another vowel, ‘O’, and fill with remaining common consonants’ C’ and ‘L.’ ‘COBLE’ comes to mind.
- Second attempt: Gaining lots of information using ‘COBLE,’ the ‘O,’ ‘B,’ ‘L’ are in the wrong place. Using a bit of intuition, ‘L’ is likely an early letter in the word, so it was placed in the second spot, leaving ‘O,’ ‘K’ to fill the middle. It doesn’t make much sense to position ‘O’ beside ‘E,’ so put ‘K’ there instead. ‘LOKE’ becomes the pseudo root word, so ‘BLOKE’ was the most logical word to try.
- Puzzles are solved by the process of elimination (and some luck)!
Example 2: Poor strategy use, what could we do better?
- ‘ALONE’ has three vowels and two common consonants, making it a worthy starting word to seek out information.
- First and second attempt: Here, it starts to go wrong by assuming double Ts, which wastes an information slot; the letter choices ‘R,’ ‘S,’ ‘T’ are excellent choices to rule out common consonants, but using ‘U’ is risky.
- Third attempt: No information is gained from ‘TRUST.’ ‘C,’ and ‘I’ were investigated next, but the same issue crops up from using double Cs, leaving fewer investigation spots open. ‘CHICK’ was formed to hunt for ‘C’ and ‘I.’
- Fourth attempt: The only information gained is that ‘I’ is in the wrong spot, though it’s in the word. On 4/6, only one letter is known but nothing else. ‘VIVID’ is taking a stab in the dark and, again, a massive risk using two double letters, ‘V’ and ‘I.’
- The word is solved by pure luck, but as you can see, using constant double letters throughout each attempt is poor practice. So make sure to continually optimize your letter choices to gain more information!
What do you do if you fall into a trap like Example 2? Remember, vowels are your best friends. It would have been in our best interest to find a word using ‘I’ earlier (‘CHIPS’ as an example). Ruling out common vowels and consonants earlier by not using as many double letters means we can use the process of elimination faster and more proficiently.
Changing your way of thinking
There’s no doubt that Wordle isn’t just a generic word puzzle; it’s also a bit of a mind game that can twist your brain into a pretzel. You don’t want to be the last in your social group to solve the word of the day, so the pressure is on. This added pressure can be interruptive when you’re trying to solve the word on the spot, making you vulnerable to mistakes as you fail to follow a methodical and proven puzzle-solving process.
Improving your mindset and managing your mental space is an underrated skill. Try to stay offline before you find the time to solve your word, then also consider setting a daily routine that works for you. Remember that it’s better to be consistent with solving the daily word than being flashy with exuberant guesses. Sure, it’s awe-inspiring to solve the daily puzzle in one or two attempts, but it’s also highly unlikely. Being okay with using your first few attempts to find information is a fantastic strategy, so don’t stress if it takes you longer to solve the word; slow and methodical play often wins the race.
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