Has Wordle been getting tougher, or am I just getting worse at it?
One solid strategy is to have strong, reliable starter words.
“ADIEU” has been popular since the beginning and that makes sense, since it includes four vowels.
But not everyone wants to know the vowels right away.
On the day that the wordle answer is adieu social media will implode
Want some statistically supported help?
Here’s theentire alphabet ranked by frequent use.
Use the list, share it, bookmark it, whatever you’d like to do.
It will surprise absolutely no one that A and E are the top two.
But I was shocked that J was the second-lowest, right in front of Q.
Lately I’ve been starting Wordle with the one-two punch of “TRAIN” and “CLOSE.
That’s what guesses three through six are for.
Check out thisCNET TikTok, which recommends starting with ADIEU and then throwing in STORY.
It’s a great one-two punch that covers a lot of popular letters.
I asked more CNET staffers, past and present, to share their Wordle strategies and favorite starting words.
Hope it gives you a BOOST or maybe a NUDGE.
Big AUDIO dynamite
AUDIO.
Get 4 out of 5 vowels out of the way immediately and focus on narrowing down consonants.
–Ashley Esqueda
A blank STARE
My go-to is STARE.
At the very least, this often seems to give me something on the board early.
–Amanda Kooser
MAKER’s mark
MAKER.
Then I move on to animal names like TIGER.
It’s not so much tactical as it is about just having fun for five or so minutes.
That’s my official rule and I’m flabbergasted y’all use the same word each day.
Grab a dictionary, close your eyes and flick to a random page.
Start with YACHT one day, try ULCER the next.
Look around the room!
Come on, people.
(I got PANIC the other day in two!)
With Wordle, we playagainsteach other to see who can solve faster.
So Spelling Bee just seems nicer.
If it works for Pat Sajak’s crew, it’s good enough for me.
Hilariously, I still sometimes misspell it.
Sometimes to shake things up – mostly based on pressure from Jackson Ryan – I’ll try something different.
But every time I stray from ADIEU, it manifests into a gigantic uphill struggle I barely recover from.
Either way, I dunno what we’re all arguing about.
Someone did an experiment on this.
The bestword is ROATE.
until I figure it out.
–Oscar Gonzalez
The first word you think of
I’m a high-risk, high-reward Wordle player.
I truly pick the first word that pops into my mind, with absolutely no strategy whatsoever.
That said, I always have a few first-guess rules.
At least two vowels.
Save those greens for later and throw five new letter guesses into the mix.
–David Priest
Don’t fail
I don’t believe in strategies.
Pick the word that speaks to you most in the morning and follow your heart.
Starting with a tactically effective word makes it too easy anyway.
So what if you fail?
It’s just Wordle!
–Sarah McDermott
Read more:Over Wordle?
Try One of These Other Puzzle Games
