The best Wordle starting words use five different, very common letters, including two vowels. Openers like CRANE, SLATE, TRACE, CRATE and STARE are consistently strong choices. They test letters that appear in a huge share of five-letter answers, so your first guess almost always lights up something useful.
Below: why those words work, a list of strong openers, second words that pair with them, and how to handle the spots where most players get stuck.
What makes a great first guess
A good opener does three things:
- Uses common letters. Letters like E, A, R, O, T, L, I, S and N appear in five-letter answers far more often than letters like J, Q, X or Z.
- Uses five different letters. A repeated letter tests one letter instead of two. Save doubles for later guesses.
- Includes one or two vowels, not five. Finding the vowels matters, but consonants like R, S, T and L narrow the answer down much more.
That last point is why vowel-heavy openers are weaker than they look. ADIEU and AUDIO find vowels quickly, but they spend almost every letter on vowels, and the answer usually needs a lot more than its vowels to pin down.
Strong Wordle starting words
| Word | Vowels | Why it's strong |
|---|---|---|
| CRANE | A, E | Very common consonants R and N, plus C, which starts a lot of answers |
| SLATE | A, E | S, L and T are all high-frequency letters |
| TRACE | A, E | Same letters as CRATE, tested in different spots |
| CRATE | A, E | R and T are two of the most useful consonants |
| STARE | A, E | Five of the most common letters in one word |
| RAISE | A, I, E | Three vowels plus R and S |
| AROSE | A, O, E | Good if you want to test O early |
| SLANT | A | Four strong consonants; great for finding the consonant skeleton |
Tools that analyze Wordle, including The New York Times' own WordleBot, tend to rate words like these highly. The differences between the top openers are small. Pick one you like and use it every day so you get used to reading its results.
Pro tip: Using the same opener every day is a real advantage. After a few weeks, you'll know at a glance what "gray C, yellow A" usually means for your second guess.
Two-word openings
Some players always play the same two words to cover ten letters before they start solving. Every pair below uses ten different letters:
| First word | Second word | Letters covered |
|---|---|---|
| CRANE | SPLIT | C R A N E S P L I T |
| SLATE | CORNY | S L A T E C O R N Y |
| TRACE | SLING | T R A C E S L I N G |
| STARE | CLOUD | S T A R E C L O U D |
| SLATE | POUCH | S L A T E P O U C H |
The downside: if your first word already found three or four letters, spending guess two on a fixed word wastes that information. A good compromise is to play your second word only when the first guess comes back mostly gray.
Reading the colors
- Green: right letter, right spot.
- Yellow: the letter is in the word, but not in that spot.
- Gray: the letter isn't in the word (or, with repeated letters, not in it again).
Here's how that plays out. Suppose the answer is BEAST and you open with CRANE:
| C | R | A | N | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gray | gray | green | gray | yellow |
Now you know: A is in the middle, E is in the word but not at the end, and C, R and N are out. A strong second guess is LEAST: it keeps A in the middle, moves E to a new spot, and tests the common letters L, S and T. That guess turns up four greens (E, A, S and T), leaving only the first letter to find.
The _IGHT trap (and other word families)
The most common way to lose a Wordle with four greens is a big word family. If you know the answer is _IGHT, it could be FIGHT, LIGHT, MIGHT, NIGHT, RIGHT, SIGHT or TIGHT, and guessing them one by one can easily run out of turns.
The fix, in normal mode: spend one guess on a word that tests several of the possible first letters at once. For example, FILMS checks F, L, M and S in one go. Whatever comes back, you've cut the list down dramatically.
The same idea works for other families, such as _OUND (BOUND, FOUND, HOUND, MOUND, POUND, ROUND, SOUND, WOUND) or _ATCH (BATCH, CATCH, HATCH, LATCH, MATCH, PATCH, WATCH).
Hard mode
In hard mode, greens must stay in place and yellows must be reused. You can't play a probe word like FILMS, which makes word families much more dangerous. Our Wordle hard mode tips test which habits actually prevent losses.
Two adjustments help:
- Guess words that could be the answer and also test new common letters. Among valid options, prefer ones with letters you haven't tried yet.
- Watch for families early. If two or three greens point toward a big family, choose guesses that fill the unknown slots with the most likely letters, instead of committing to a single candidate.
Common mistakes
- Reusing gray letters. Every gray letter you play again is a wasted slot in normal mode.
- Putting a yellow back in the same spot. Yellow means "not here," so move it.
- Forgetting about double letters. Words like SPEED, LLAMA or GEESE exist. If you're stuck, consider a repeated letter.
About Wordle
Wordle was created by software engineer Josh Wardle and became a worldwide hit in late 2021. The New York Times bought it in early 2022, and it's still published there daily.
Keep playing
Want to try these openers without waiting for tomorrow's puzzle? Word Guess is our free Wordle-style game, with a daily word and unlimited play, so you can test CRANE against SLATE as many times as you like.
If you enjoy the deduction side of Wordle, you'll like Sudoku: every number is found by logic, no luck involved. Our Sudoku strategies guide walks through the techniques step by step, and Minesweeper scratches the same itch with numbers instead of letters.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Wordle starting word?
Words like CRANE, SLATE, TRACE and CRATE are consistently strong because they use five different, very common letters, including two vowels. There is no single perfect word, and any of these is an excellent choice.
Is ADIEU a good Wordle starting word?
It finds vowels fast, but it spends four of its five letters on vowels, and D is uncommon. Most players get more information from words with common consonants like R, S, T, L and N.
What happens with repeated letters in Wordle?
Each copy of a letter is colored separately. If you guess a word with two E's and the answer has only one, one E is marked green or yellow and the other is gray.
What is hard mode in Wordle?
In hard mode, every green letter must stay in its spot and every yellow letter must be used in your next guesses. You can't play a throwaway word to test new letters.