Best Wordle Starting Words, Ranked by Letter Frequency
Your first Wordle guess is the only one you make with no information, so it should test the letters most likely to be in the answer. Instead of guessing which words work, we counted: for each letter, how many of the 2,120 likely answers in our five-letter list contain it.
The letters that matter most
A handful of letters appear in a large share of answers. Vowels A and E lead, followed closely by consonants such as R, O, T, L, I, S and N. Rare letters like J, Q, X and Z each appear in only a tiny fraction of answers, so they are a poor use of an opening guess.
The top starting words
We scored every likely answer with five different letters by adding up how common its letters are. These are the ten highest-scoring openers in our list:
Popular openers such as SLATE, CRANE, TRACE and CRATE sit near the top for the same reason: each tests two common vowels and three of the most common consonants.
Why five different letters?
A guess that repeats a letter, such as SASSY, can only test four or fewer letters. Every repeat is a wasted tile. That is why our ranking only includes words with five different letters; you can browse all of them in our list of 5 letter words with no repeating letters.
Vowel-heavy openers: ADIEU and AUDIO
Words such as ADIEU and AUDIO test four vowels at once. They quickly show which vowels are in play, but they test few consonants, and consonants such as R, T, L, S and N are what really separate one answer from another.
They are a reasonable choice if you like to lock down vowels first, but on average a balanced opener such as SLATE narrows the list further. See all 5 letter words with 3 vowels if you prefer that style.
A two-word system
Some players always open with the same two words, which together test ten different common letters. For example, a first guess like CRANE followed by a second guess like SPLIT covers C, R, A, N, E, S, P, L, I and T. You give up the chance of a lucky second-guess win, but you almost always know several letters by guess three.
Using your opener with our solver
- Play your starting word in Wordle.
- On our 5 letter word finder, type green letters into their boxes, yellow letters into the yellow box for the position where you played them, and grey letters into the grey field.
- Press Find words and pick a highlighted word, the most likely answer.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Wordle starting word?
Based on letter frequency in our list, AROSE, ALERT and ATONE score highest. SLATE, CRANE and TRACE are close behind and are popular for the same reason.
Should I use the same starting word every day?
A fixed opener makes it easier to plan your second guess, since you learn which follow-ups work best after each result. Changing your opener every day is more fun but not better on average.
Is ADIEU a good starting word?
ADIEU tests four vowels, which is useful information, but it tests only one consonant. Most players do better with an opener that mixes two vowels with three common consonants.
