Wordle, the daily word game published by The New York Times, gives you six guesses to find a hidden five-letter word. You can solve it reliably by picking a good opening word, reading the coloured feedback carefully and narrowing the options with each guess.
Gather what you need before starting
You need very little. Wordle runs in a web browser on the New York Times Games site and in the publisher’s Games app. The basic daily puzzle has long been available without a paid subscription, although some related tools are part of the paid Games offering. Check the current terms on the site itself, because access arrangements can change.
Beyond the game, it helps to have:
- A few minutes without distractions. The puzzle has no timer, so you can think through each guess.
- A scrap of paper or a notes app for listing letters you have ruled out and possible positions for the letters you have found. Some players keep it all in their heads, but writing it down helps you avoid wasting a guess.
- A rough idea of common English letter patterns. You do not need a large vocabulary. It is more useful to know which letters and letter pairs appear often in five-letter words.
There is one puzzle a day, and everyone playing gets the same word. The game records your results on your device, or in your account if you are logged in. That record includes your win rate, your current streak and how many guesses each win took.
Learn what the tile colours mean
After each guess, every letter tile changes colour:
- Green means the letter is in the word and in the correct position.
- Yellow means the letter is in the word but in a different position.
- Grey means the letter is not in the word, or not in it any more times than you have already been shown.
The on-screen keyboard uses the same colours, so you can see at a glance which letters are still available. If you find green and yellow hard to tell apart, the settings menu has a high-contrast option that uses different colours. Turn it on before you play.
Each guess has to be a real word on the game’s accepted list. If it is not, the game rejects it and you do not lose a turn. You cannot use random strings of letters to test which letters are in the word.
Choose a strong opening word
Your first guess has the most freedom, so use it to gather as much information as possible. A good opening word:
- uses five different letters
- includes two or three common vowels
- uses frequent consonants such as R, S, T, L and N
Words built from these letters are more likely to light up at least one tile, which gives you something to work with on the second guess. Players disagree about which single word is best. Many settle on one and use it every day, which makes their results easier to compare over time. Avoid opening words with repeated letters or rare letters such as Q, X, Z and J. They test fewer letters and usually return mostly grey.
Read the feedback after each guess
Once the tiles change colour, record three things:
- Fixed letters. Each green tile locks a letter in place.
- Present but misplaced letters. Each yellow tile tells you two things: the letter is somewhere in the word, and it is not in that spot. Note both.
- Eliminated letters. Grey tiles remove letters from consideration, with the exception covered in the section on repeated letters below.
Many players skip the second half of the yellow clue. If an E is yellow in the second position, then E belongs in position one, three, four or five. That cuts down the options considerably.
Use the second guess to test new letters
If your first guess revealed little, use the second guess to test five letters you have not tried yet. Do not try to solve the puzzle at this stage. For example, if your opener tested A, E, R, S and T, a second word built from I, O, U, L, N or C covers a large share of common letters across the two guesses.
If the first guess revealed several letters, there is a trade-off. You can try a word that fits all the clues so far, or a word that tests new letters while also moving the known letters into new positions. The second approach often pays off when many candidate words still fit.
Watch for repeated letters
The hidden word can contain the same letter more than once, and this catches many players out. The colours follow some particular rules:
- If you guess a word with two Ls and the answer has only one, one L tile will show green or yellow and the other will show grey.
- If you guess a word with one L and it comes up green, the answer could still contain a second L somewhere else.
When you have found most of the letters and no obvious word fits, consider a repeated letter. Common patterns include double E, double O, double L and double S.
Narrow down and commit
By the third or fourth guess, you usually have enough information to list the words that could still fit. Write them out. If only one word fits, guess it.
If several fit, think about what each guess would tell you. Suppose the answer could be any of four words that differ only in their first letter. Guessing them one at a time could use up all your remaining turns. A better option is a different word that contains several of those possible first letters, which can rule them in or out in one go. Hard Mode does not allow this move (see below).
Turn on Hard Mode if you want more challenge
The settings include a Hard Mode. With it on, every later guess must use any letter already shown in green or yellow, and green letters must stay in their positions. This blocks the elimination guess described above, so the puzzle becomes harder. As the game is set up, you can only switch Hard Mode on before starting the day’s puzzle, not partway through.
Review your result
When you finish, the game shows your statistics and lets you share a grid of coloured squares without revealing the letters. Some players also look back over their guesses to see where they lost time. Common causes are a yellow clue they did not use properly or a guess that tested letters already ruled out. A quick review like this is the most reliable way to get better over time.
Avoid the mistakes people actually make
- Reusing grey letters. If you are not playing in Hard Mode, re-testing a letter you have already eliminated wastes a guess.
- Forgetting where yellow letters cannot go. Putting a yellow letter back in the same position gives you no new information.
- Ruling out double letters too early. A green tile does not mean the letter appears only once.
- Rushing the final guesses. When several words fit, guessing quickly instead of thinking through the options is a common way to lose a streak.
- Spoiling it by accident. Answers are widely discussed online, so avoid social media and search results before you play if you want to solve it yourself.
Know when this approach is the wrong choice
This method aims to solve the puzzle reliably in as few guesses as possible. That is not every player’s goal. If you play mainly to relax, a careful, note-taking approach can make it feel like a chore. You may prefer to guess by instinct and accept the occasional loss. If you are playing in Hard Mode, the advice above about elimination guesses does not apply. And if you want to play several puzzles in a row, the daily NYT game gives only one a day, so a different word game will suit you better.
Frequently asked questions
What time does the new Wordle come out each day?
The New York Times releases a new Wordle puzzle every day, and the game generally switches to the next word at midnight on your device’s local time. That means players in different time zones get the new puzzle at different moments. If you play across midnight, finish the current puzzle first, because the board resets to the new word once the day changes.
Is NYT Wordle free to play?
The basic daily Wordle puzzle has been playable without a paid subscription on the New York Times Games website and app. Some extra features and companion tools are part of the publisher’s paid Games subscription. Access terms can change, so the most reliable way to check is to look at the current options on the New York Times Games site or in the app before you play.
Can the Wordle answer have double letters?
Yes. The hidden word can contain the same letter more than once. If you guess a word with a repeated letter and the answer has that letter only once, one tile shows green or yellow and the other shows grey. A single green tile does not rule out a second copy of that letter elsewhere in the word, so think about repeated letters when you get stuck.
What does Hard Mode change in Wordle?
Hard Mode requires every guess after the first to use all the hints already revealed. Letters shown in green must stay in the same position, and letters shown in yellow must appear somewhere in your next guess. You can no longer play a word made entirely of untested letters to eliminate options, which makes the puzzle harder. You turn it on in the game’s settings.
Sources and further reading
- The New York Times Games: the official Wordle page and in-game help, which explain the rules, settings and Hard Mode.
- The New York Times Games app: the mobile version of the puzzle, with the same statistics and accessibility settings.
- General guides to English word puzzles: background on common letter frequencies and patterns in five-letter words.
- Accessibility guidance on colour contrast in games: context for the high-contrast colour option in the settings.
Surfaced from the google:US signal “daily word puzzle game”. AI-assisted draft, editorially reviewed.
