Beat Wordle Every Time: The Best 5-Letter Words & Tricks

Solve Wordle in the first 3 guesses every time with these expert tricks

Written by Nicole Levine, MFA

Last Updated: December 16, 2024

Are you tired of not getting the answer to Wordle in less than 5 or 6 tries? Want to win Wordle every single time you play? Whether you're a Wordle beginner or looking for ways to improve your strategy, this wikiHow article will teach you 13 expert tricks for beating Wordle, from choosing the ultimate starting word to learning the best way to get the most green letters on your second guess. We'll even give you a Wordle cheat sheet full of great 5-letter words that are sure to boost your stats!

Things You Should Know

Every 5-letter word has at least one vowel, so include as many vowels as possible in your first guess to narrow down the word.
The most common letters that appear in 5-letter words are E, A, R, O, T, L, I, S, & N.
Some of the best Wordle starting words are Irate, Saute, Arose, Alert, Trace, and Cater.

1

Start with a word that has 3, 4, or 5 vowels.

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Guessing the vowels first will help narrow down your future guesses. Every 5-letter word has at least one vowel, so vowels are a great starting point. Including at least three vowels in your first word can help you get the most yellow and green letters up front and make your next guesses easier. Even if your vowel-heavy word doesn't yield you any yellow or green letters, you'll be left with fewer vowels to try on your second guess. Some great 3, 4, and 5-vowel words to try:
- Adieu
- Audio
- Louie
- Saute
- Alien
- Irate
- Radio
- Abode
- Cause
- Cameo
- Argue
- Imbue

2

Use your second try to confirm as many letters as possible.

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Your second guess is just as important as the first, so make it count. Use your second guess to enter a word that has as many different non-gray letters as possible to eliminate or confirm as many letters as possible after two tries. The goal is to have a great set of letters to work with (even if they are yellow/in the wrong spots) so you can easily nail your third guess. Which words have your yellow and green letters, as well as several other letters that you haven't tried yet?
- For example, if your first word was Adieu and you didn't guess any of the vowels right, there must be an O in the word, and/or possibly a Y. A word like Brown, Spork, or Glyph would be a great second guess.
- You can also plan your second word in advance just in case your first word doesn't give you any yellow or green letters. For example, if you used Cause as your first word and none of the letters were correct, be ready with a word like Bough or Phony that has none of the same letters. Some other helpful pairs:
  - First word: Irate
  - Second word: Clown
  - First word: Alien
  - Second word: Rough
  - First word: Radio
  - Second word: Black

3

Try our cheat sheet of the best Wordle words.

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If you're not sold on the many-vowels method, we have another great way to choose the perfect starting word. Of the 2,315 possible 5-letter words that might show up in Wordle, some letters are far more common than others.^{[1]
X
Research source} When you analyze the total list of 5-letter words and the most common positions of each letter in those words, you wind up with a pared-down list of great Wordle words to use as your first or second guess.
- Later
- Alter
- Alert
- Arose
- Irate
- Stare
- Stale
- Arise
- Snare
- Trace
- Crate
- React
- Cater
- Steal
- Saner
- Trade
- Slate
- Learn
- Caret
- Dealt
- Shade
- Least
- Tried

4

Learn the most common letters and their positions.

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You can use the same technique we used to create our Wordle cheat sheet to guess your next letters. Once you learn the probability that a particular letter will appear in a certain place in Wordle, you're bound to make better guesses on your first, second, and third tries. Use these statistics to narrow down your next guess:^{[2]
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Research source}
- Vowels and their most common positions in 5-letter words:
  - A appears in 979 5-letter words, usually as the third letter (307 words) or the second letter (304 words).
  - E appears in 1233 5-letter words, usually as the last letter (424 words) or the fourth letter (318 words).
  - I appears in 671 5-letter words, usually as the third letter (266 words) or the second letter (202 words).
  - O appears in 754 5-letter words, usually as the second letter (279 words) or the third letter (244 words).
  - U appears in 467 5-letter words, usually as the second letter (186 words) or the third letter (165 words).
  - Y appears in 425 5-letter words, mostly as the last letter (364 words), but sometimes as the third letter (29 words).
- Most common consonants & their positions in 5-letter words:
  - R appears in 899 5-letter words, usually as the second letter (267 words) or the last letter (212 words).
  - T appears in 729 5-letter words, usually as the last letter (253 words) or the first letter (149 words).
  - L appears in 719 5-letter words, usually as the second letter (201 words) or the fourth letter (162 words).
  - S appears in 669 5-letter words, usually as the first letter (366 words) or the fourth letter (171 words).
  - N appears in 575 5-letter words, usually as the fourth letter (182 words), but often as the third letter (139 words).
  - C appears in 477 5-letter words, usually as the first letter (198 words) or the fourth letter (152 words).
  - D appears in 393 5-letter words, usually as the last letter (118 words) or the first letter (111 words).
  - H appears in 389 5-letter words, usually as the second letter (144 words) or last letter (138 words).

5

Consider common letter pairings.

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Certain letters often appear together in 5-letter words. Think about the 5-letter words you know and consider patterns in those words. Which two or three letters often occur together in 5-letter words? Memorize these common pairs so you always have an idea of what letters might work best around the ones you've already guessed correctly:
- At the beginning:
  - TH
  - TR
  - BL
  - BR
  - CH
  - CL
  - CR
  - SH
  - FL
  - FR
  - QU
- In the middle:
  - EA
  - OU
  - OA
  - QU
- At the end:
  - CK
  - SH
  - ND
  - NT
  - GH
  - VE

6

Stay mindful of words with repeated letters.

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Words like Really, Sheer, Erase, and Patty can really throw a wrench in your strategy! If you're stuck, consider that one of your yellow or green letters may actually appear in the word two or more times.

7

Use a sheet of paper.

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Draw 5 blank lines on the paper (one for each letter), and enter any letters you've already guessed correctly. Write down different words that have those letters to experiment on paper before inputting your guesses into Wordle. You'll probably come up with many more ideas on paper than you would typing letters on the screen!

8

Turn off Hard Mode.

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If you're really stumped on a word, it can sometimes be more helpful to reuse gray letters (or yellow letters in the wrong position) so you can try a word with more vowels or common consonants. You can switch off Hard Mode by tapping the gear icon at the top-right corner of Wordle and toggling off the "Hard Mode" switch.

9

Don't try the answer to an earlier Wordle.

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You'll find an up-to-date archive of all previous Wordle answers at https://wordfinder.yourdictionary.com/wordle/answers. As of now, there haven't been any repeated answers, and there shouldn't be any until all 5-letter common English dictionary words are used.^{[3]
X
Research source} If your goal is to guess Wordle on the first try, make sure not to use any of the words on this list.

10

Look at Wordlestat.com before you start today's puzzle.

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Wordlestat compiles the daily Wordle stats from results shared on Twitter. While you won't see the answers or solid hints, you can see the correct and incorrect guess distributions per letter position, as well as how long the game lasted for people before guessing the correct word.
- In the Game Length section, you'll see if more people guessed the correct word in, say, 4 or 5 guesses, than 3. This would indicate that the word is trickier than a puzzle in which more people guessed correctly in 3 guesses or less.
- If a particular position has a higher gray or yellow rating, that letter is more troublesome for people to guess than the letters with a higher green rating. This could show a repeat letter or a less common one.

11

Try practice puzzles on another site.

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Boost your Wordle skills by playing Wordle alternatives. While there used to be a playable archive of all past Wordle games, the archive was taken down in early 2022.^{[4]
X
Research source} But you can still play games that are nearly identical to Wordle on other websites to practice your skills.
- Hello Wordl: https://hellowordl.net
- Wordle Forever: http://alexdaily.nl/wordle
- Quordle lets you guess 4 words at once!: https://www.quordle.com
- Wordplay: https://wordplay.com
- If you're interested in other word games, get a little smarter with our Train Your Brain word game: https://www.wikihow.com/Games/Train-Your-Brain. Use the letters provided to find the one word that links all four wikiHow images.

12

Create your own Wordle puzzles.

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Come up with your own 5-letter words to guess and send them to your friends. There are plenty of free websites and apps that let you create your own Wordle-like puzzles, which can give you some insight on what it's like to choose a 5-letter word (or more!) for somebody else to guess. Here are a few of our favorites:
- Strive Math's Custom Wordle: https://mywordle.strivemath.com
- Word Rodeo: https://word.rodeo
- Worble: https://worble.net

13

Fake it til' you make it.

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While this isn't the most ethical way to "beat" Wordle, it can help spare you the embarrassment of sharing your 6 out of 6 score with friends who guessed the correct word in 2 tries. To give yourself a free second try (which, yes, is cheating), simply open a new Incognito or private browsing tab, go to https://wordly.org, and you'll have a fresh new shot at the same Wordle puzzle. Just don't be overzealous and claim you guessed it correctly on the first try—your friends will likely catch on!