Wordle Hacks: 20 Best Words To Start With & Strategies To Win In Fewer Guesses

Like the rest of the world, I have been obsessed with Wordle, a simple yet addictive game where users attempt to guess a five-letter word which changes each day.

If you haven't jumped on the Wordle bandwagon yet, here's how the the game works: You have six tries to guess the word. Correct letters in the wrong place turn yellow, ones in the right place turn green, and wrong letters turn grey. The charm about this game is that everyone gets the same word each day so your competitors are everywhere. It doesn't take much time or effort to complete, and it's fun to compare results with friends and family.

After playing this game for a few weeks, I've gathered tips and strategies from other Wordle players and combined them with my own discoveries into this Wordle hack master list. It includes the best first and second word guesses and tips on how to guess the word in as few tries as possible.

Keep reading to check it out!

Enter The Right First Word

The first word you guess on Wordle is key. 'Arose' or 'Soare' are some of the most talked about starting guesses. These words have three vowels and two consonants that appear in many 5-letter words. Whether they turn out green, yellow or grey, it'll give you a good start on what word to guess next.

But the game quickly loses its appeal if you're guessing the same word at the start every time. Here are more words that contain common vowels and consonants:

• Arise
• About
• Adieu
• Anime
• Audio
• Atone
• Alone
• Drape
• Irate
• Louie
• Media
• Plaid
• Pleat
• React
• Raise
• Roast
• Sauce
• Snare
• Stone
• Stare/Stear
• Train
• Tread

Choose Your Second Word To Cover More Ground

If all or most of the letters in your first word turn grey or yellow, trying to guess the word right away is too risky. A wiser move is to strategically enter a second word that will identify more correct and incorrect letters.

Enter a word that contains completely different letters from your first word, making sure it has the rest of the vowels and next most common consonants. That way, you'll have more correct letters to work with and/or more incorrect letters to exclude, leaving you a better chance of nailing the word on your third guess.

Photo from Wordle

If you started with arose or soare, these are some second word guesses you can try:

• Tulip
• Build
• Guilt
• Tunic
• Juice
• Linty
• Humid
• Lucid
• Quick

Try Word Combos

Photo from Wordle

If your bar is set low and the aim is to guess the word by the 6th time, you could try some word combinations that will pretty much guarantee a win, albeit in more tries. These three-word combos will cover the most used letters in the alphabet:

• Chard -> flute -> swing
• Steam -> cough -> blind
• Tubes -> fling -> champ

Think About Common Letter Placements

When deducing the Wordle word, think about common letter placements. The last letter will most likely not be i or u, and there are several consonants that are the usual suspects at the second block like t, l, r, h, m and p. There are also letters that commonly go side by side like th, ou, oa, ea, ch, nd, lt, le, se and de.

Use a substitute letter

Photo from Wordle

One of the common obstacles when playing Wordle is not being able to visualise words. I find that using a substitute letter like 'x' or 'o' does the trick.

Consider All Possible Before Words Before Your Final Guess

In the heat of the moment, you might rush to make your final guess once you're certain that you've got it right. But there are no prizes for finishing Wordle quickly and the only thing you can brag about on social media is the number of guesses you make. If your goal is to get the Wordle in as few guesses as possible, it's a better option to think about all the possible words first.

Say you already have the letters and placements 'S H A R ?' and are missing just the last letter, the Wordle could be shark, sharp or shard. Similarly, '? I G H T' could be might, fight, night, right, light or even the less known words wight or bight. In these cases where there are still many possibilities, you might want to sacrifice one more guess to narrow down the last letter. Try to make your next guess contain as many of the potential letters as possible like 'drops' for the former and 'films' or 'flame' for the latter.

Remember The Forgotten Letters

When playing, take note not to forget the outlier letters like q, x and z. Remember that 'y' can be used as a vowel or be the last letter, and that a word can have two of the same letters. Imagine if Wordle hits us with a 'queen' or 'hydra' one day!

That all said, Wordle is a lot more fun and satisfying when you throw out all the strategies and go with what first pops in your mind.

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Text by: GirlStyle SG