All Wordle players fall in one of two camps. You have the players who start with the same word every day, or at least use a rotation of certain words every week. And then you have the players who don’t give the starting word much thought, entering any word that pops into their mind each day.
I fall into the latter category, but several of my fellow Deseret News Wordle buffs are dedicated to their starting words. We’ve decided to share some of these go-to words with our readers. May it prove fruitful in your quest to becoming a Wordle master.
Wordle starting words that have personal meaning
- Recently, a Wordle bot revealed that “crane” is the best Wordle starting word. Interestingly, Chris Miller, a longtime copy editor at Deseret News, uses this word — but for an entirely different reason. Crane is his mother’s family name, and he uses it as a tribute to his mom, who gave him a love of words through Scrabble, crossword puzzles and reading. He then typically follows up with the word “pouts.” His win percentage across Wordle and several popular spinoffs is in the low-to-mid-90% range.
- Kelsey Dallas, who reports on religion, politics and the Supreme Court, starts with the word “price” most often because it is her husband’s last name. Her most common Wordle score is 4.
‘Adieu’ is a really popular Wordle starting word
- Ryan McDonald, a writer and editor for the Sports Express team, admits his enthusiasm for Wordle has waned a bit. He does, however, enjoy playing Sedecordle, which requires players to solve 16 words in 21 guesses. For this game, he always uses the same four starting words to get going: “Adieu,” “story,” “lense” and “cheap.” This routine typically leads him to solving the puzzle with a guess to spare.
- Perhaps it’s a sports thing, because Jay Drew, who covers BYU sports, also uses “adieu” for his go-to word. His average Wordle score is 4. Sarah Lindsey, social media coordinator, also finds success with the word “adieu” and typically solves Wordle by four attempts.
But ‘stare’ is even more popular
- Valerie Jones, a story editor, is a rare breed. She used to have a different starting word every day, but eventually switched her playing method because it was hard to sustain. Now, she uses “stare” as her starting word, and typically solves Wordle in four guesses. This is also the go-to word for Aaron Shill, managing editor of Deseret.com.
- Chuck Wing, director of photography, is also a fan of the word “stare.” But that’s just one in a rotation of words he uses to provide a little variety. He also incorporates “audio,” “stair,” “store,” “mound” and “mount” into his daily play.
- Katie McKellar, who covers politics and the housing market, also uses “stare,” in addition to “arise.” She has played more than 100 games and has a 95% win percentage.
- Lindsey Harper, an intern for the Rapid Relevance team, likes to use “stare” because she finds that the letters “s” and “t” are fairly common. She also uses “earth” and “fresh,” and typically gets Wordle on her third attempt.
Some reporters have solved Wordle in 1 guess
- Jay Evensen, the Deseret News’ senior editorial columnist, adopted his son’s go-to word: “heist.” He was thrilled when that decision led him to solve Wordle on the very first try a few weeks back (so if you’re looking to solve it in one try, maybe don’t use this word).
- Lois Collins, who reports on family policies and research, is a fan of the word “depot.” She also mixes it up with “stein” and “steam.” She has a solid average of 4 and has even solved the puzzle in one attempt. But she did admit there was one time Wordle stumped her: “ulcer.”
Other Wordle go-to words
- Tyler Haslam, who covers prep sports and Real Salt Lake, is a fan of the word “sauce.” This go-to word leads him to typically solve Wordle in three or four attempts.
- Stevi Ginolfi, director of content promotion, frequently uses the word “flame.”
- Mary Richards, a reporter for Church News, almost always kicks off with the word “their,” which has led to a win percentage higher than 92% since she started playing a couple of months ago. She typically solves Wordle by four or five attempts.
- Suzanne Benitez, advertising account executive, uses two go-to words — “point” and “cause” — which has given her a 96% win percentage.
- Rachel Sterzer Gibson, a reporter for Church News, likes to use the word “avoid” because of its three vowels.
- Ginny Romney, the newsletter editor, likes to start with the word “brain.”
Do you have a different starting word? Leave it below in the comments section.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified winning percentages as winning streaks.