Wordle is a popular game purchased by the New York Times, in which participants take a maximum of six tries to guess a five-letter English word, changing every day. There has been a constant debate as to which word we should start with since the initial guess gives essential insight into what the answer will be. Here, I’ve curated a list of words that deserve recognition in this debate.
ADIEU
“Adieu” originated in French but is commonly used in English when saying goodbye. It is my favorite starting word because of its vowel placement. It contains four out of the five vowels, so I have a strong chance of hitting one or more correct letters in the first guess. It also beats other four-vowel, five-letter words because the only vowel missing is an O, while other words like “audio” or “ouija” are missing an E. An E is often considered the most common letter in the English dictionary, so we want it in our Wordle starting word!
SALET
According to some MIT scholars, statistically speaking, “salet,” a 15th-century helmet, is the best Wordle starting word. These researchers built an algorithm that automatically solves Wordle puzzles, and with “salet” as the starting word, this bot solved the problems in 3.421 tries. I calculated my own statistics and found out that from using “adieu,” it takes me an embarrassing 4.306 tries on average to guess the word, so next time I do Wordle, I may have to try using “salet” instead.
Update: One day later, I was excited to put my new knowledge of “salet” to good use, but I almost lost the game that day. I was, however, pleasantly surprised that so many of the five letters in this word matched the final answer and how easy it was to put them in the right place after I made my initial guess.
Wordle 988 5/6
🟩🟨⬜🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
CRANE
If you ask around any group of avid Wordle players, finding someone who uses “crane” as their starting word isn't hard. It contains many commonly used letters, including two of the most common vowels, A and E, in positions where we often see them. However, despite the popularity of “crane,” it isn’t the most effective starting word, in my opinion, because Cs are not very common in English compared to other consonants not present in this word, like L or T.
Honorable mention: STARE-CLOUD-PINKY
This is a popular combination for people interested in speed rather than accuracy. In other words, if you are competing in games like CoWordle, where the goal is to guess the word in less time than your opponent, this combo will almost always guarantee success. You do not have to spend extra time to think of words; instead, it takes five seconds to make three guesses that cover 15 common alphabets. From there on, it isn’t difficult to look at which letters are correct, compare them to the rest of the 11 unguessed letters, and guess a final word accurately.
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