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Beginner guides

How to Play Wordle: Rules, Strategy, and Tips for Beginners

Learn how Wordle works, how to read its color clues, and how to make each of your six guesses count.

By VGSources Team 3 min read
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Wordle asks you to find a hidden five-letter word in six guesses. Enter a valid word, then use the colored tiles to narrow down the answer: green means correct letter and position, yellow means the letter is elsewhere, and gray means the letter is not in the answer.

How to play Wordle

  1. Enter any five-letter word the game accepts and submit it as your first guess.
  2. Read the color feedback on each tile. Use those clues to plan another five-letter guess.
  3. Keep guessing until you find the answer or use all six attempts. The daily puzzle refreshes at midnight in your local time, according to the current guide.

The game accepts more words as guesses than it uses as possible answers. So a word can be allowed as a guess without being a possible solution; the accepted word list and answer set can also change.

What the green, yellow, and gray tiles mean

  • Green: The letter appears in the answer in that exact position. Keep it there in later guesses.
  • Yellow: The letter is in the answer, but not in that position. Move it to a different position.
  • Gray: The letter is not in the answer, subject to the repeated-letter rule below.

For example, if the answer were CRANE and you guessed TRACE, the tiles would be gray, green, yellow, green, green: T is absent, R is correctly placed, A is present but misplaced, and C and E are correctly placed. This is an illustration of the color rules, not a daily answer.

Can Wordle have repeated letters?

Yes. An answer can contain the same letter more than once. When your guess also repeats a letter, the two tiles may not receive the same color: Wordle accounts for how many copies of that letter are in the answer.

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For example, if the answer contains one A and your guess contains two As, only one guessed A can be matched to the answer. A gray tile on the other A does not mean the letter is absent; it means there is no additional copy to match. Read repeated-letter colors together rather than ruling out a letter after seeing one gray copy.

A beginner strategy that uses each guess well

  1. Choose a first word with distinct, common letters. A useful opener tests several letters without doubling up. There is no need to memorize one supposedly perfect starting word.
  2. Record the pattern. Keep green letters fixed, move yellow letters to untested positions, and note which letters appear gray.
  3. Eliminate words that break the clues. A candidate must fit every green position, include each yellow letter somewhere else, and respect the letter counts implied by repeated-letter feedback.
  4. Consider duplicates when ordinary candidates fail. The answer may repeat a letter, even if the clues have not made that obvious yet.
  5. Decide whether to explore or solve. If several answers remain, a guess that tests new letters can help distinguish them. If the clues already point strongly to one candidate, try that likely answer.

Is there a best Wordle starting word?

There is no opener that is best for every player and every possible answer set. A good starting word balances distinct-letter coverage, common letters, and how easily the resulting clues help you form plausible answers.

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In a 2024 online study published in Operations Research (issue dated May–June 2025), Dimitris Bertsimas and Alex Paskov reported that their exact dynamic-programming model performed best when it started with SALET: it found every hidden word in its analyzed set within five guesses and averaged 3.421 guesses. Those results depend on the paper’s word set and objective; they are not a guarantee for current daily answers or a rule that every human player should use SALET. Read the study in Operations Research.

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What is Wordle Hard Mode?

Hard Mode requires you to use revealed green and yellow clues in every later guess. A green letter must stay in its known position, and a yellow letter must be included somewhere else. This changes how constrained your guesses are; it does not change the goal of finding the answer in six tries. Standard mode leaves you freer to test new letters without reusing every clue, which can be useful while you are learning the game.

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