A Beginner's Guide to Wordle: How the Daily Word Puzzle Works
If you've seen friends posting little grids of green, yellow and gray squares and wondered what all the fuss is about, welcome. I'm a self-confessed Wordle junkie, and I'd love to help you get hooked too. I got pulled in by playing it every day with my students and my family, trading hints and racing to solve it before the day got started. The good news is that the rules take about a minute to learn. The fun part is everything that comes after.
The basics in one paragraph
Every day there is one hidden five-letter word, and everyone playing gets the same one. You have six tries to guess it. Each guess has to be a real five-letter word; you can't just type a random string of letters to test them. After each guess, the tiles change color to show how close you were. A new puzzle arrives at midnight in your local time, so there is exactly one game a day.
What the colors mean
This is the heart of the game, so it's worth getting comfortable with it.
- Green means the letter is in the word and in the right spot.
- Yellow means the letter is in the word, but in a different spot.
- Gray means the letter isn't in the word at all (or, if you used it twice, the word doesn't have a second copy of it).
Here's an example. Say the hidden word is CHART and you guess my favorite opener, STAIR:
The S and I are gray, so neither appears in the answer. The A is green: right letter, right spot. The T and R are yellow: they're in the word, just not where I put them. That one guess already tells you a lot. You know three of the five letters, one of them is locked in, and you know two places the others can't go.
A simple game plan for your first week
You don't need a fancy system to enjoy Wordle, but a little structure helps.
1. Start with a word full of common letters
Your first guess is a fishing trip. You want to test letters that show up in lots of words, like E, A, R, O, T, L, I and S. That's why openers such as STAIR, SLATE or CRANE are popular. I explain why I stick with STAIR in Why I start with STAIR.
2. Use your second guess to learn something new
If your first word turned up only a yellow or two, it's often smart to try five fresh letters with your second guess rather than rushing to solve. There's a whole guide on making your second guess count.
3. Start building the word
By guess three, you usually have a handful of letters. Now think about where they could go. Yellow letters need a new spot. Green letters stay put. Try saying possible words out loud, or jot the alphabet on scrap paper and cross off the grays.
4. Watch out for repeats and families
Two things trip up beginners more than anything else: words with a repeated letter (like SPEED or LLAMA), and families of words that differ by just one letter (like LIGHT, MIGHT, NIGHT and SIGHT). If you're stuck, ask yourself, "Could a letter appear twice?" I wrote separate guides on double letters and tricky word families.
The keyboard is your best friend
The on-screen keyboard changes color as you play, just like the tiles. Gray keys are letters you can forget about. Green and yellow keys are letters you need to use. Glancing at the keyboard before each guess is one of the easiest ways to avoid wasting a turn on a letter you've already ruled out.
Normal mode or Hard Mode?
There's a setting called Hard Mode. When it's on, any letters you've found must be used in your later guesses: greens have to stay in place, and yellows have to appear somewhere. It sounds tougher, and sometimes it is, because it takes away the option of a "scouting" guess. I'd suggest playing in normal mode until the colors feel second nature. When you're ready, my Hard Mode tips will help.
Sharing without spoiling
One of the nicest things about Wordle is that everyone is solving the same puzzle, so it's built for sharing. When you finish, the game lets you share your grid of colored squares without the letters. That way friends can see how you did without learning the word. Please don't post the answer itself; someone out there is still on guess four!
What if you get stuck?
It happens to all of us. A few gentle ways to get unstuck:
- Step away for a few minutes. Fresh eyes really help.
- Write down every letter you know, with a dash for each blank, like
_ R _ _ E, and try vowels in the blanks. - Think about common endings such as -ER, -ED, -LY, -CH and -Y.
- If you want a nudge without the answer, our daily hints go from gentle to strong. Here's how to use them without spoiling yourself.
A little history
Wordle was created by software engineer Josh Wardle and released to the public in October 2021. It spread like wildfire over that winter, and The New York Times bought it in early 2022. It's still played every day by a huge number of people. Word Junkie is an unofficial fan site, though, and isn't connected to The New York Times in any way.
My best advice for beginners
Be kind to yourself. Wordle is a puzzle, not a test, and some words are just plain sneaky. The more you play, the more you'll start to "see" patterns. You'll notice which letters like to sit at the end of a word and which pairs travel together. That's the moment it stops feeling like guessing and starts feeling like detective work. Happy guessing, and welcome to the club.