Wordle has taken the internet by storm and seems like it’s here to stay. Millions of users every day play the game that is hosted on The New York Times website. The game is simple. You have six tries to guess a five-letter word. While the game can give you hints, there are best practices to ensure that you can out-Wordle your friends and family.
Apparently there is a best word to start with and it was confirmed by the Wordle Bot, per Forbes. It would seem like the best word would be one filled with vowels, maybe like “adieu.” But no, alas, the word is “crane.” Yes, crane, like the lovable birds.
A crane about to land
David Clode, Unsplash
Perhaps you are not an ornithologist and cannot remember this bird’s name. Have no fear, there are other words that hit the top 10:
- Crane.
- Slate.
- Crate.
- Slant.
- Trace.
- Lance.
- Carte.
- Least.
- Trice.
- Roast.
These words were generated by the Wordle Bot itself, but others have come up with their own list.
One website suggests that “a solid first guess contains two vowels and three consonants.” They suggest other starters:
- Aloft.
- Clear.
- Guilt.
- Intro.
- Opens.
- Prone.
- Slime.
- Stain.
- Tread.
- Under.
Using solid starting words isn’t all that it takes to become a Wordle champion. According to CNET, one prolific user suggests, “You aren’t playing Wordle correctly if you use the same word to start every day. That’s my official rule and I’m flabbergasted y’all use the same word each day.”
Some believe that the key to Wordle is getting all the vowels correctly. They tell you to start out with words like “adieu” or “audio” or “ouija,” but even that is not guaranteed to help you if the word happens to be something like “radar.”
If you cannot remember the name of beloved birds or words that are almost exclusively vowels, the best thing to do is to use a mix of common and uncommon letters.