The Math of Winning Wordle: From Letter Distribution to First-Word Strategies (2023)

FAQs

What is statistically the best word to start Wordle? ›

Sorry Bill Gates, but AUDIO isn't the best word to start with when you're playing Wordle. A pair of MIT researchers recently set out to find the optimal starting word for the popular online puzzle, discovering that the statistically superior first guess is SALET, which is a 15th century helmet.

Since there are 2,315 possible target words in Wordle, the probability that you will guess the target in exactly one try is 1/2315 = 0.000432. In fact, it doesn't matter which of the 2,315 words in the dictionary you choose to use as your initial guess since the probability of success is always 1/2315.

The algorithm behind giving that hypothetical score is: Every possible guess is checked against every possible solution. Desirable green letters are worth two points, less certain yellow ones are worth one point, and the useless grey ones are worth zero points.

You may intuitively know that the most common starting letter for a daily Wordle is "S". What you may not know is how common it is. Roughly 18% of the possible Wordle answers start with "S".

Wordle in Four

Most people should, on average, get it in at least 4, even on days where it is harder. Especially if you aren't making risky moves, four guesses should supply you with enough information to make a correct guess.

If, on the other hand, you're simply trying to win within the allotted six guesses, the top three words to play are “adept,” “clamp” and “plaid.” Using any of these three words will yield an average success rate in winning the game of 98.79 percent, 98.75 percent, and 98.75 percent, respectively, if you're playing the ...

On average 95% of target words can be solved within 6 guesses with average game length is approximately 4 rounds. By the time the third guess has been made, a good player will have located about 4 target letters with 2 or 3 in their correct positions.

Wordle has 2,308 possible answers and 12,545 allowed guesses. The global average for solving Wordle is 4.016 guesses, with Sweden being the best country (3.72) and Egypt the worst (4.42). The best word to start with is “SALET”, followed by “CRATE”, “TRACE”, “SLATE”, and “REAST”.

While most puzzles have a 99% solve rate, and even tough puzzles have a solve rate in the 80% range, today's Wordle has a solve rate of only 45%.

In Wordle, an optimal strategy means avoiding repeating letters as much as possible. Instead of rushing to try to guess the actual solution on your second try, an ideal second word would repeat no letters from your first guess.

What is an impressive Wordle score? ›

A score of three is solidly above average, and it is certainly nothing to frown at. Especially with harder words such as “cynic,” “vivid,” or “swill,” getting it in three is very good. Three takes skill, finesse, and intellect. Only true Wordlers will be able to keep their streak of three and below.

The least common letters in all words are the usual suspects: J, Q, Z, X, and it's unlikely any five-letter Wordle word would contain any of those characters. F, V, and K are also uncommon, but these letters have higher odds of being in one of the five possible Wordle positions.

The last letter is the most interesting: E, Y, T, R, L, H, N, D all appear as the last letter in more than 5% of Wordle words. Compare this to the last-letter frequency of general five-letter words: S, E, Y, D, T, A, and R appear in more than 5% of the full set of five-letter words.

For the end letter, the most common are E, S, T, D, and N.

Wordle winning streak: An interview with a person who's gone green 83 times in a row.

Based on the data shared by the unofficial account, Wordle Stats, of the 241,489 players who shared their Wordle results on Twitter on January 22, 2022, approximately 1% of them solved it on the first try, 3% on the second try, 17% on the third, 33% on the fourth guess, 29% on the fifth attempt, and 15% on the final .. ...

Wordle is a popular word-guessing game from the New York Times. Wordle, the popular word-guessing game from the New York Times, will no longer use plural words, according to an announcement made last week. Over the past year, tens of millions of people tried to guess the five-letter word of the day.

According to one analysis, the letter E appears most frequently in English-language words featured in a condensed version of the Oxford Dictionary, followed by A, R, I, O, T, N, and S. So starting words like “ratio,” “irate,” “stain,” or “stare” that include those commonly used letters are great options.

What are the odds of getting Wordle in 2 tries? ›

So if we guess BIPED to start out with, there's a 91/2315 = 3.93% chance that we get the Wordle in two (so long as our second guess is from the 2315 word answer list). A qajaq!

This European Country Has The Best Wordle Score In The World, Study Shows. According to the study by word site Word Tips, Sweden comes out on top being able to get the right answer in 3.72 guesses. (For anyone unfamiliar with how Wordle works, when it comes to scoring, the lower the better.)

On average 95% of target words can be solved within 6 guesses with average game length is approximately 4 rounds. By the time the third guess has been made, a good player will have located about 4 target letters with 2 or 3 in their correct positions.

Based on the data shared by the unofficial account, Wordle Stats, of the 241,489 players who shared their Wordle results on Twitter on January 22, 2022, approximately 1% of them solved it on the first try, 3% on the second try, 17% on the third, 33% on the fourth guess, 29% on the fifth attempt, and 15% on the final .. ...

While picking a new word is a trick, starting Wordle with the same word every day is another strategy players have been using. Choosing words with at least two to three vowels along with most common consonants, such as 'sauce,' 'saute' and 'dance', is an efficient way of arriving at the Wordle of the day.

Starting with a word that has common letters is a good approach, because it lets you quickly eliminate many words: If you pick a word with the most common letters and one or more of those common letters is not in the solution, then you have identified a large number of impossible solutions.

The least common letters in all words are the usual suspects: J, Q, Z, X, and it's unlikely any five-letter Wordle word would contain any of those characters. F, V, and K are also uncommon, but these letters have higher odds of being in one of the five possible Wordle positions.

This means the top most commonly used letters in 5-letter words (in terms of total frequency as well as average frequency) were the letters A, E, S, O, R, I, L, T, etc. I decided to focus on the top six letters since the average frequency dropped significantly after the sixth letter.

“Wordle” players are quite good at the game — or at least that's what they say. Seventy-four percent of players said they successfully solve the puzzle either “always” or “sometimes.” Meanwhile, 17 percent said they solve it “rarely” and only 9 percent said they “never” complete the puzzle.

What are the five words to win Wordle every time? ›

Because, although his system will give players all the correct letters 99.5 percent of the time, it's up to the player to take those letters and win Wordle. "You still have to solve it but this will give you a fantastic lead into solving," said Myles. "Derby, flank, ghost, winch, jumps."

Based on his findings, O'Connor has determined that approximately 1% of the players who post their results to Twitter are guessing the correct word on their first attempt, and somewhere between 3% and 9% guess correctly on the second try.

A letter that isn't in the word in any spot shows up gray. With each “burner” word, you can learn hints about the letter and their placements, and then, you get one chance to guess the Wordle. This simple yet entertaining game became extremely viral within the first two months of 2022.

Spencer Evans was the one whose accomplishment impressed me the most: 83 unbroken wins and counting. A wordsmith himself, Evans first discovered Wordle earlier this month.