# What's your Wordle approach? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** board-card-word-game\ **Created:** [January 7, 2022, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372 "2022-01-07T14:08:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372/81 "2022-01-30T03:32:47Z")
I’ve been doing CROWN FAKED LIGHT BUMPS and when that gets boring, CLOWN FAKED RIGHT BUMPS. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372/82 "2022-01-31T22:32:51Z")
> **[Viral word game Wordle purchased by NYT for ‘low-7 figures’](https://www.polygon.com/22911285/wordle-purchased-new-york-times-viral-word-game)** > > ‘It is important to me that, as Wordle grows, it continues to provide a great experience to everyone’ Looks like he’ll be rolling in DOUGH MOOLA BLING CLAMS MONEY ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372/83 "2022-02-01T03:55:56Z")
I have only played about twenty games. I have not looked at the official word list. A lot of people have done statistical calculations that look at common letters or most frequent letters by position. This (mistakenly?) assumes the words are randomly chosen from a general list when in fact I think words are probably chosen to use some slightly rarer letters and allow a more limited selection of choices in later guesses. (Reducing it to -A-E- has too many options). I’m not convinced the first word makes a lot of difference - I have tried to use a different one each game. My very brief playing includes solutions like proxy or wrung. My initial beliefs are that it is more important to guess a few key consonants rather than exactly which vowels - because that leads to far fewer options. Accordingly, I suspect words like ADIEU are overrated since knowing the vowel does not help so much. I think harder words tend to be chosen, not random ones from a list of all five letter words. I also suspect a lot of words probably start with diphthongs. Knowing if the second letter is a H, L, R or T (for example) would help reduce options when this is the case. So guesses like chart, shark or trade seem at least as good as others I have seen. ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372/84 "2022-02-01T05:40:52Z")
I go STARE, then a choice of MOUND, MOUNT, SOUND etc depending on the result of turn 1. This usually will identify the presence, or lack thereof, of I/Y. This often results in a guessable third turn (my most common score) What not to do, which has turned a few threes into fours, is blurt out the first combo you think of. Better think a little longer in case a more plausible entry emerges. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372/85 "2022-02-01T13:53:06Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > This (mistakenly?) assumes the words are randomly chosen from a general list when in fact I think words are probably chosen to use some slightly rarer letters and allow a more limited selection of choices in later guesses. (Reducing it to -A-E- has too many options). No. The entire list of solution words is known. Any analysis is based on the actual list, not some possible list of five letter words. The best and most thorough analysis that I have seen determined that the best starting word is TRACE ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372/86 "2022-02-01T13:57:38Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > My “go to” starter is STORY. For some reason, I like to check to see if the word ends in Y on the first move. Yeah, I find I am somewhat “blind” to letters such as Y. Also W and H, which is why I start with WHINY. Every time I get blindsided by a word, I have the urge to say “never again” and make that word my starting word. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372/87 "2022-02-01T17:01:26Z")
It is based on the provided list of permitted words, not a list of all five letter ones. But the statistical analysis assumes the words chosen are randomly taken from the provided list. My contention is that they are not, that the words chosen as answers contain more diphthongs, and somewhat more unusual letters than an average random word, to be fair, more interesting, and better reduce the solution set in subsequent guesses. I do not know if my contention is true, however. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372/88 "2022-02-01T18:12:47Z")
There is a list of permitted words and a subset of that list which is the solution words. The analyses are based on the subset. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372/89 "2022-02-01T18:45:49Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > > [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > > > This (mistakenly?) assumes the words are randomly chosen from a general list when in fact I think words are probably chosen to use some slightly rarer letters and allow a more limited selection of choices in later guesses. (Reducing it to -A-E- has too many options). > > No. The entire list of solution words is known. Any analysis is based on the actual list, not some possible list of five letter words. > > The best and most thorough analysis that I have seen determined that the best starting word is TRACE I have never looked at the solution set of possible words, nor will I, methinks. I believe a better starting word is IRATE. It knocks off 3 vowels and the consonants are common letters. C is not very common. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372/90 "2022-02-01T19:33:04Z")
I think you can overanalyze things and this takes some of the fun away. So I also have not looked at the list of common words. I have a 1-6 guess distribution of (0,2,6,12,1,1). I think this is pretty good. For me, knowing the consonants is more helpful than the vowels, but in the end might not matter. I think there are a thousand words which would make reasonable first guesses; who cares which one is statisticallly “best”? Again I suspect words beginning with CH, CL, CR, DR, FL, FR, GH, GL, GR, PH, PL, PR, SC, SH, SCH, SCR, SPL, SL, ST and WH and WR (etc) are overrepresented in the solution set. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372/91 "2022-02-01T19:37:47Z")
For what it’s worth, there are zero words with the sequence SCH in them, and only a handful starting with SCR. I disagree that the developer set it up so that certain words are more likely to show up. I imagine, but I don’t know for sure, that the developer set it up so that every date will map to some random number between 1 and 2300 or so, without repeating (or, without too many repeats). ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372/92 "2022-02-01T19:41:35Z")
Just going by the high number of words that seem to have begun with these letters (proxy, wrung, etc.). Certainly I could be wrong. Full of schit? Not many of the words contain lots of vowels - not even a schwa. Shucks. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372/93 "2022-02-01T19:46:20Z")
There just aren’t that many common five letter words in English that contain lots of vowels. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372/94 "2022-02-01T19:47:34Z")
Eerie, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372/95 "2022-02-01T19:48:13Z")
No, but many contain two. Guessing, there are probably more that contain one than three - but many of the one vowel words have diphthongs. Scrabble enthusiasts know words like AALII and AERIE. One of the reasons Wordle is popular is specialist knowledge is not required or even very helpful. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372/96 "2022-02-01T19:53:10Z")
I find that eliminating or confirming R, L and H early on is helpful, because they are the second letter in almost every double consonant combination at the beginning of words that don’t start with S. Confession - I play the Wordle puzzle daily, but I also found a simple app knock-off version that allows me to play as much as I want for practice. So I’ve mostly been playing that app, which is slightly easier and probably uses a different word list. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372/97 "2022-02-01T20:08:22Z")
People can suppose and speculate all that they want. An actual logician/mathematician literally analyzed the list of every possible solution word. He then looked at every possible guess word and did extensive an extensive computer analysis and determined the best starting word that would, on average, get you to the solution in the fewest guesses. There was a thorough write up that I read that I can’t relocate at the moment but here is a good place to start. > ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372/98 "2022-02-01T20:23:06Z")
Well if the last 40 words are any indication, we can figure out possible likelihoods. The last 40 words have been, in chronological order from Christmas Eve: WEARY on 12/24/2021 PICKY ACUTE FERRY ASIDE TAPIR TROLL UNIFY REBUS on 1/1/2022 BOOST TRUSS SIEGE TIGER BANAL SLUMP CRANK GORGE QUERY DRINK FAVOR ABBEY TANGY PANIC - 1/15 SOLAR SHIRE PROXY POINT ROBOT PRICK WINCE CRIMP KNOLL SUGAR WHACK MOUNT PERKY COULD WRUNG LIGHT THOSE - 2/1, today ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372/99 "2022-02-02T03:14:04Z")
Since it’s an analysis with foreknowledge of the word set, which we don’t have, using trace is a slight cheat IMO. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372/100 "2022-02-02T06:51:50Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > PANIC - 1/15 This was the game when the updates changed from GMT to the International Date Line, and I unexpectedly skipped a day’s puzzle. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-wordle-approach/957372.md?page=6)