Wordle gives you six attempts to find one five-letter word. Enter a valid guess, use the colored tiles to learn which letters match, then make another guess that respects everything you have learned.
How to play Wordle in one minute
- Open the official New York Times Wordle and enter a valid five-letter word.
- Read the result: green is correct and placed, yellow is present but misplaced, and gray is normally absent.
- Keep every green letter in its position. Move yellow letters to new positions and avoid confirmed gray letters.
- Use untested letters when several answers still fit. Each row should either solve the puzzle or reduce uncertainty.
- Continue until the answer is found or the sixth guess is used.
A first word with five different letters gives you five separate tests. Our corpus comparison found that balanced openers such as STARE, RAISE, and SLATE expose more useful consonants than a four-vowel word. See the numbers in our starting-word analysis.
What the Wordle tile colors mean
| Color | Meaning | What to do next |
|---|---|---|
| Green | The letter and position are correct | Keep it in the same slot |
| Yellow | The letter is in the answer but not there | Try it in another open slot |
| Gray | The answer does not need that copy | Usually remove it; check duplicates first |
In this example, A stays in position three. C must appear somewhere other than position one. R, N, and E can normally be removed.
The word “normally” matters. If a guess contains two copies of a letter and only one is colored, the gray copy does not erase the colored one. It tells you the answer has fewer copies than you guessed. The double-letter guide covers that case with tested examples.
Turn each clue into a useful next guess
Start with constraints, then think about information. A green letter is fixed. A yellow letter must be included elsewhere. A fully gray letter is excluded. Once a word meets those rules, ask whether it tests letters that separate the remaining possibilities.
When the first row is mostly gray
Use mostly new, common letters. Repeating four gray letters in the next row spends another guess without learning much. In normal mode, a deliberate test word can be more useful than chasing a low-probability answer.
When several words share one pattern
A pattern such as _IGHT has many familiar completions. Guessing FIGHT, LIGHT, MIGHT, and NIGHT in sequence can consume the board. A word that tests several competing initials at once may identify the right branch faster. In hard mode, the game's clue requirements can limit that option.
When you have mixed colors for one letter
Count confirmed copies before removing anything. One green P plus one gray P usually means the answer contains exactly one P. Two colored E tiles mean the answer needs at least two E's.
A valid guess is not always a likely answer
Wordle needs a larger list of accepted guesses than daily answers. That allows a player to enter a less common word for letter testing even if it would be an unusual solution. It also explains why two word tools can return different result counts.
WordleSolver currently filters a broad 3,424-word five-letter corpus. It is useful for matching clue patterns, but we do not present it as the private or current daily-answer list. You may see regional forms, inflections, or terms that are better treated as guesses than predictions.
Practical rule: when two candidates fit equally well, favor the familiar word for an answer attempt and the broader-coverage word for an information attempt.
Use a Wordle helper without losing the puzzle
You control how much help the solver gives. Enter only your green, yellow, and gray clues to check your reasoning. Keep the candidate panel closed if you want a nudge, or open it when the board has stopped being fun.
Our Wordle solver works in the browser and supports per-row yellow positions, duplicate counts, optional starting and ending filters, and a ranked next-guess list. The separate strategy guide focuses on solving without immediately revealing every candidate.
Sources and further reading
- The New York Times Wordle for the live game and current interface.
- Our solver methodology for the exact clue filtering used on this site.
- Editorial policy for our sourcing and update process.