6 Letter Wordle: Best Starting Words, Tips and a Free Solver

Once you’re good at the daily five-letter Wordle, six letters is the natural next challenge. Many Wordle-style games, including unlimited versions and custom puzzles, let you play with six-letter words, usually with six guesses. It sounds like a small change, but the extra letter changes which words to start with and where the traps are. We analysed six-letter words to find out what works.

How 6 letter Wordle is different

Our list has 15,232 valid six-letter words, almost twice as many as five-letter words. Of those, 2,893 are common words that are most likely to be chosen as answers. That’s a bigger pool, but you also get one more letter of information from every guess, and two things stand out in the data:

• Repeated letters are everywhere. 52% of likely six-letter answers repeat a letter, such as BANNER, LETTER or COFFEE. For five-letter answers it’s only 33%.
• Endings are predictable. 14% of likely answers end in -ER (ANSWER, BANKER, LADDER), and -LE, -ING and -LY are common too.

The most common letters in 6 letter words

We counted how many likely answers contain each letter. E is far ahead, found in almost two answers out of three:

Notice that R is second, ahead of A, and that I, N and T all beat S. A good six-letter opener should test E and R, then as many of A, I, N and T as it can.

Best 6 letter Wordle starting words

A good opener uses six different letters from the top of that table. We scored every six-letter word with no repeated letters. The best are:

1. RETAIN (or its anagram RETINA): tests E, R, A, I, N and T, the six most common letters. On average it finds 2.6 of the answer’s letters, and only 2% of answers share no letters with it.
2. LINEAR: swaps T for L and does almost as well.
3. ARISEN: a good choice if you want to test S.
4. RETAIL: similar to RETAIN, with L instead of N.

Common favourites such as STRAIN, GARDEN and SILENT are fine, but they score lower because they use less common letters, or test S at the expense of E or R.

The best second word

After RETAIN, the best follow-up is a word with six new letters. The top picks from our list are SHOULD, CLOUDY and SLOUCH. They test O, U, L, S, D and H or C, which RETAIN skips.

Together, RETAIN + SHOULD find 4 or more of the answer’s letters in 72% of games. That leaves you four guesses to put them in order, which is usually plenty. For five-letter games, see our guide to the best second word in Wordle.

A sample game: RETAIN, then SHOULD

Here’s how the two-word plan works in practice. Say the answer is GARDEN.

• Guess 1, RETAIN: R, E and A turn yellow, N turns green in the last spot, and T and I are grey. Only 11 of the 2,893 likely answers still fit.
• Guess 2, SHOULD: D turns yellow and everything else is grey. Now just 3 words fit: DARKEN, GARDEN and WARDEN.
• Guesses 3 to 5: with four guesses left and three words to choose from, you’re guaranteed to solve it.

Two well-chosen guesses took the list from almost 3,000 words to three.

Tips for solving 6 letter Wordle

• Expect a double letter. If you have five letters placed and none of your guesses fit, the answer probably repeats one of them. Think LETTER, COFFEE, BUTTER and PEPPER. Our guide to repeated letters in Wordle explains how the colours work.
• Try -ER early. If E and R are both yellow, put them at the end. With 405 likely answers ending in -ER, it’s the single most common ending.
• Look for word parts. Six-letter words are often built from pieces: UN- or RE- at the start, -ING, -LY, -LE or -ED at the end. Once you spot one, the rest of the word is much easier.
• Don’t chase every vowel. Most answers (62%) have exactly two vowels, and 28% have three. Once you have found two, switch to consonants.
• Use a burner word when stuck. If several words fit, such as BATTER, MATTER, LATTER and HATTER, guess a word that tests several of the missing letters at once. Our guide to Wordle traps shows how.

Use our free 6 letter Wordle solver

Our 6 letter word finder has a built-in Wordle solver with six boxes:

1. Put each green letter in its box.
2. Put each yellow letter in the yellow box for the position where you played it.
3. Type your grey letters into the grey field, then press Find words.

You’ll see every six-letter word that still fits, with the most likely answers highlighted. You can also browse lists such as 6 letter words ending with R or 6 letter words starting with S.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a 6 letter Wordle?

The official New York Times Wordle uses five letters. But many Wordle-style games and unlimited versions let you choose six letters, and the same strategy and tools work for all of them.

What is the best word to start 6 letter Wordle?

RETAIN, or its anagram RETINA. It tests the six most common letters in six-letter answers: E, R, A, I, N and T. LINEAR and ARISEN are close behind.

How many guesses do you get in 6 letter Wordle?

Most versions give you six guesses, the same as the classic game. Some let you choose more guesses to make up for the longer word.

Why is 6 letter Wordle harder?

There are more possible answers, and more than half of them repeat a letter, which is harder to spot. A strong opener and second guess make a big difference.

All figures in this guide come from our own word list. “Likely answers” are the common six-letter words most likely to be chosen as answers, as marked in our solver.