Wordle

Maximizing Information Gained with Each Guess

My approach to Wordle is to maximize information gained with each guess to increase my chances of determining the answer within the six allowed guesses. My first three guesses are almost always DELAY, TOUCH, and RINKS. These words use:

• fifteen different letters
• all six vowels, with Y in the final position where it often occurs
• the most common consonants

My wife, who is smarter than I am, starts with a different word every time she plays, and she usually obtains the answer in fewer guesses than I need.

Other Rules for Guessing

My other rules for guessing, based on experience, are:

• If there is a U, check if Q goes before it (e.g., QUART, QUINT, EQUAL, QUIRK, SQUAT, QUALM, PIQUE, QUEUE, QUEEN, EQUIP)

• Watch for letters that appear more than once:

  • A letter that appears twice together (e.g., KNOLL, SKILL, SWILL, SPILL, RUPEE, SWEET, COMMA, ATOLL, GLOOM, FLOOD, GOOSE, DROLL, SPELL)

  • A letter that appears twice separately (e.g., ROBOT, DODGE, AHEAD, TEASE, RENEW, LOWLY, FEWER, FORGO, DONOR, EGRET, SEVER, LIBEL, INANE, UNDUE, EJECT, KNOCK, USUAL, EXCEL, AORTA, PIXIE, POLYP, AWAIT)

  • Two letters that each appear twice (e.g., VIVID, CACAO, MADAM, MOTTO, SALSA, KAYAK, COCOA, ONION, QUEUE)

  • A letter that appears three times (e.g., FLUFF, MUMMY, NANNY, DADDY, SASSY)

• If there are multiple words available (e.g., -UNCH, where PUNCH, LUNCH, BUNCH, HUNCH, and MUNCH are possibilities), eliminate letters using words like BLIMP, CRUMB, PLUMB, SWAMP, or WHOMP before trying to make a final guess

• Watch for words with unusual pronunciations (e.g., SAUTE, DEPOT, VALET, SUAVE, DUVET, ENNUI, BERET, VOILA)

• If there is an H not at the beginning of the word, look for TH, WH, PH, or CH combinations (e.g., PHONE, PHONY, GRAPH, ALPHA, APHID, PHASE, NYMPH, SHIRE, WHACK, THOSE, SHAKE, THORN, CHANT, WATCH, STASH, MATCH, HUNCH, CHEER, SHADE, FINCH, BROTH, WHINY, SHANK, SHAVE, HITCH)

When I was inexperienced, I often had to resort to laboriously spelling out all possibilities with the letters I knew until I found a good guess. I rarely need to do this anymore.

Additions

June 10, 2024

Isaac Aronow of the New York Times published his approach to Wordle in the article Unwinding Wordle: Accelerating Your Solve.

August 26, 2024

My first guess is always DELAY, which was the word on August 20, 2024.

August 26, 2025

A programmer experiments with Wordle: Playing every game of Wordle simultaneously.

I have recently been playing Wordle Archive. I have lost five games out of 490, a rate of about 1%. My losses are caused either by a stupid, nonoptimal guess, or by a pattern where there are too many choices to eliminate them all (e.g., FOUND, POUND, MOUND, WOUND, BOUND, ROUND, SOUND, HOUND).

This is today’s Pearls Before Swine comic strip about what it feels like to end a Wordle streak.