Tips and strategy

• Open with a word that has several different common letters, such as a mix of vowels and popular consonants, to learn as much as possible from guess one.
• Avoid repeating grey letters. Once a letter is grey, drop it from later guesses so each attempt tests something new.
• Use yellow letters actively by moving them to a new position in your next guess, since you already know they belong somewhere.
• Think about double letters. The scoring handles repeated letters carefully, so a doubled letter in your guess is marked only as many times as it appears in the answer.
• Guesses must come from the game's word list. If a word is rejected, choose a more common word of five letters.

What it exercises

Wordle exercises vocabulary, deductive reasoning and working memory. You combine position clues with letter clues, eliminate impossible words and keep track of what each earlier guess revealed, which makes it a good small exercise in logical elimination using language and spelling patterns.

Frequently asked questions

How do the colors work in Wordle?

Green means the letter is in the word and in the correct spot. Yellow means the letter is in the word but in a different spot. Grey means the letter does not appear in the word, or you have used it more times than it occurs.

How many guesses do I get?

You have six guesses to find the hidden five-letter word. If you run out, the game shows the answer so you can learn from it, and you can start a new puzzle.

Why does the game say my word is not in the list?

Each guess must be a word from this game's built-in list of five-letter words, so unusual words may be rejected. Try a common word instead, and the guess will not be counted against you.