‘Wordle’ Hints To Beat the Game Every Time, According to An Expert

Wordle remains as popular on its third anniversary as it did when it first went viral in October 2021, and players are always on the lookout for ways to improve their game.

One linguistics expert has with shared her favorite methods for not only playing The New York Times-owned daily word puzzle, but ensuring ongoing success.

Wordle was invented by engineer, Josh Wardle, as a game to play with his partner who loved word puzzles. He decided to release it publicly in 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it quickly went viral.

He ended up selling the game to NYT months later for an undisclosed seven-figure sum and it remains a global hit to this day. In 2023 alone, Wordle was played 4.8 billion times, according to CBS News.

The rules of the game are simple enough to understand. A mystery five-letter word appears at midnight in users’ local time zone and players must solve it in six attempts or less. They are helped by a color-coded system, with green tiles telling players they got a letter right, yellow showing that the letter appears in the word but is in the wrong spot. Finally, a gray tile indicates that letter does not appear in the word at all.

Linguistics expert and Babbel Live teacher, Noël Wolf, explained that one surefire way to be a Wordle master was to “familiarize yourself with more words.”

“Expanding your vocabulary for Wordle is particularly useful because the game often includes words that aren’t used in everyday conversation,” she told Newsweek.

“Aside from reading widely to expose yourself to less common words, playing other fun word games like Scrabble, word searches and crossword puzzles can be a great way to widen your vocabulary.”

While you can read more in order to learn a wider range of words, Wolf also suggested being very mindful with your guesses as you progress through the daily game.

“Be strategic with your second guess. As hard as it might seem—especially if you have a few correct letters in your first word—using a completely separate set of letters, where possible, will help eliminate more possibilities in fewer guesses,” she said.

“For example, If your first Wordle guess is ‘crane’ and you discover that C and R are correct, instead of guessing a word like ‘cross,’ try a different word like ‘plumb.’ This will use new letters and explore different vowel placements, increasing your chances of narrowing down the possibilities.”

If all else fails, remember the proverbial phrase “patience is a virtue,” and “step away from the screen,” suggested Wolf.

“At times, constantly staring at your phone can make the game feel harder to solve. Try taking a piece of paper and writing out the word with the blank letters, and see if any words jump out at you that way,” she said.

First Word Options

Wolf said picking a strong first word was key to ensuring Wordle success, and players should try to include the most common letters in five-letter English words, which are, E, A, R, O, T, L, I, S, and N.

“Using these letters increases your odds of finding confirmed letters straight away,” she said.

“Some of my favorite starting words are IRATE, SAUTE, ALERT, and TALES. They contain a good mix of vowels and consonants that appear frequently, giving you a solid foundation to build on.”

The next step is remembering that words do have repeated letters, and to consider doubles such as EE, LL, OO.

“It’s also a good idea to consider homophones, words that sound the same but have different meanings like, ‘there and their’,” Wolf said.

But if you are really intent on taking your Wordle skills to the next level, Wolf recommended exploring the roots of Latin and Greek words.

“This can help you deduce the meanings of unfamiliar words or identify common prefixes and suffixes, giving you a head start,” she said.

“Finally, a very effective way to turn your Wordle experience into a learning opportunity is to look up any solutions that you don’t recognize and note down their meaning as part of your efforts to widen your vocabulary.”