It has been nearly three years now. Wordle Software engineer Josh Wardle released the game publicly in October 2021, and it was subsequently acquired by The New York Times. with an astounding price tag of several million dollars In January 2022, I haven't missed a single day without playing it. To be more precise, I shouldn't end a day either... The New York Times releases a fresh puzzle every night at midnight, and I often stay awake for it. Unwinding with Wordle is typically my final activity before calling it a night.

I don’t worry much about maintaining streaks—I figure if I go all out with my final attempt and still come up short, so be it; what’s the harm? Additionally, I’m not really into broadcasting my outcomes. I couldn’t care less about the time others take to find their answers, and I doubt they’re keen on hearing mine either.

However, I'm keen on getting some tips, tricks, and ideal initial words for tackling the puzzle. I believe it’s perfectly fine to adjust your approach as you progress—my experience shows me that the more frequently I play, the sharper my tactics become. From countless hours devoted almost obsessively to playing Wordle over several years, here’s what I’ve gathered.

1. Initial words hold such significance.

You could begin with any term, yet ideally, I'm looking for a robust keyword to kick things off powerfully. Leveraging the Oxford English Dictionary, I've created a compilation of all the characters in the alphabet , ordered based on their frequency of use.

In the past, I utilized ADIEU as my starting word since I enjoyed having numerous vowels. However, after a full year of play, I shifted towards incorporating commonly seen consonants instead. My preferred opening now is TRAIN, offering not only frequently occurring consonants but also including two vowels. Typically, my subsequent guess would be CLOSE followed by BUMPY. Yet occasionally, due to the abundance of letters provided by TRAIN, I find myself making an early guess at a word fitting the established pattern.

Readers shared some of their favorite combinations with me, and I plan to keep these in reserve for when I want to change things up. It’s intriguing that two of their starting words also begin with “TR,” similar to my go-to word, TRAIN.

Follow the TREND

From Randy: "The initial word is always TREND. If there isn’t an E, the next word is GHOUL. Once an E appears, move on to JAMBS. The final word is consistently PICKY."

Afterward, Randy decided to mix it up a bit: "I'm quite fond of TREND, FLASH, GUMBO, PICKY. Similar to 'Wheel of Fortune,' where RSTINE appear in both TREND and FLASH. There are four words here with all alphabets present excluding QWZXVJ."

Stick to the TRAIL

Jeff had a winning streak of 206 games under his belt when he submitted his first three choices, which initially stood as TRAIL, CONES, and DUMPY.

He subsequently modified CONES to SCONE, observing that in Wordle, "S" rarely appears at the conclusion of a word. This is because the New York Times editors have stated openly that they avoid using standard plurals; therefore, the term can’t be a straightforward plural such as FOXES or SPOTS—words formed simply by adding an “s” or “es.” However, it could potentially be a more intricate form of a plural like GEESE.

Get RUSTY

Rusty mentioned that using his first name as the initial starting word brought him good fortune.

He stated, 'The initial trio must be either RUSTY, PLACE, BOING, or BOINK,' adding that the final word hinges on whether a C or an L has been matched previously.

ROAST BEAST

My closest pal, Lisa, who is deeply into playing Wordle, is currently thriving using "ROAST" as her opening word. Occasionally, to mix things up, she begins with "BEAST."

2. Keep in mind that letters can be reused multiple times.

I have mistakenly believed that Wordle words never contain repeated letters. This notion is incorrect—they can indeed appear more than once. The fact that the game indicates, say, an 'E' occupies the final position does not rule out having additional 'E's elsewhere in the word. In the past, I would often become fixated on avoiding previously found letters when guessing new ones. Now, I strive to avoid this mindset.

3. Certain terms begin with vowel letters.

This might seem obvious to most of you, but I often get fixated on the notion that a word needs to begin with a consonant. This is quite a mistake on my end—actually, ERROR could serve as a decent example of a word starting with a vowel, particularly if an 'R' were already present without knowing its position. Additionally, I occasionally succumb to assuming "consonant, vowel" patterns; however, numerous words indeed commence with clusters like BR or WH.

4. Don't forget Y

Keep in mind that old vowel rule about “sometimes Y.” This means Y can act as a vowel. So when you’re stumped because AEIOU aren’t appearing, consider including Y; for instance, the word might be NYMPH or CRYPT among numerous others. Alternatively, perhaps Y isn't alone in being absent but rather its placement is confusing things. A good strategy is to use something like BUMPY to ensure Y gets considered, particularly for checking whether the word concludes with this letter.

5. Try out your hypotheses

After getting a solid starting word or two, what proves invaluable to me is leveraging the grid itself. When brainstorming potential solutions, I input these guesses onto the Wordle board, marking unknown letters with 'X'. For instance, suppose I'm certain the word concludes with "ER", but within those slots lies at least one ‘D’. In this scenario, I'd enter something along the lines of DXXER and attempt to deduce the exact term—perhaps it’s “DIVER”? Should my initial guess not yield success, I'll modify the position of the 'D' and consider multiple instances of each letter such as additional Ds, Es, or Rs.

I opted for an X because I prefer typing it directly into the Wordle grid, as it resembles a blank space to me. Given that these guesses aren’t actual words, there’s little risk of mistakenly pressing enter and losing a try unintentionally.

6. Give yourself time

The last thing I learned from playing Wordle for many years is to allow yourself enough time. Since this game lacks a countdown timer, if I find myself awake late at night and struggle after three attempts, I simply switch off the lights and go to bed. Often, revisiting the puzzle with a clear mind in the morning provides me with the insight needed to solve it.

And if you view seeking online assistance as not constituting cheating, you could explore a website such as Crossword Solver, Where you specify that you’re searching for a five-letter word and input the letters you already have. This method is most useful when you know the positions of at least two letters, but if your starting guesses are solid, you usually will have some idea where certain letters should be placed.