One five-letter answer, six guesses, scored tile by tile as green, yellow, or gray. That is the whole game. Everything else on this page is detail on top of those three facts.
The core rules, in five lines
- The answer is always one five-letter word, the same for everyone that day.
- You get six guesses, and every guess must be a real, accepted five-letter word.
- Each guess is scored tile by tile: green, yellow, or gray.
- Repeated letters are counted, not just checked for presence (see below).
- Hard mode is optional and only restricts which guesses you are allowed to play.
For the full explanation, worked examples, and how scoring actually works under the hood, read how to play Wordle.
Tile colors at a glance
| Standard | High-contrast | Meaning | Next move |
|---|---|---|---|
| Green | Blue | Right letter, right place | Lock it in that slot |
| Yellow | Orange | Right letter, wrong place | Reuse it, different slot |
| Gray | Gray | Not in the answer | Drop it (check duplicates first) |
There is no red tile in standard or high-contrast Wordle. Players who see orange sometimes describe it as red; it is the high-contrast stand-in for yellow. Full breakdown, including how to switch the palette: Wordle colors meaning and the red/orange square guide.
A gray copy of a letter never cancels a green or yellow copy of that same letter in the same row. It only caps how many copies the answer contains.
Double letters in three rows
| Row evidence | What it means |
|---|---|
| One green, one gray (same letter) | Exactly one copy in the answer |
| Two yellow / green (same letter) | At least two copies in the answer |
| Both copies gray | Zero copies in the answer |
Yes, Wordle answers can and do repeat a letter (APPLE, PRESS, ABBEY). For every mixed-color pattern with tested examples, see the double-letter guide.
Normal mode vs. hard mode
Both modes score tiles identically. Hard mode adds one restriction: any letter that already came back green or yellow must be reused in your next guess, so a pure information probe (a word you know cannot be the answer, played just to test letters) is off the table. See the hard-mode guide for legal-guess strategy.
Pick an opener without overthinking it
A balanced five-unique-letter word such as SLATE, STARE, TRACE, or CRANE tests common letters without wasting a guess. The full comparison, including letter-frequency counts from our own 3,424-word list, is in the strategy guide and the starting-words guide.
Already have a few guesses in? Paste them into the interactive Wordle solver and let it filter the possible words for you.
Sources and further reading
- The New York Times Wordle for the live game and current rules.
- How to play Wordle for the full rule set.
- Editorial policy for how we check and update these guides.