The best Wordle starting words
Your opener is the only guess you fully control, and the difference between a great one and a random one is roughly half a guess per game — enough to turn routine fives into fours. Here's what solver analysis consistently finds, minus the folklore.
The short answer
- CRANE and SLATE — the classic solver picks: five common letters in common positions.
- SALET / REAST / TRACE — bot-optimal or near-optimal openers if you don't mind obscure words.
- STARE, IRATE, AROSE — excellent "human" openers that are easy to remember.
All of these hit the same idea: R, S, T, L, N, C among consonants; A and E among vowels; letters placed where they most often appear (S first, E last, A second or third).
Why ADIEU is worse than it feels
Vowel-heavy openers like ADIEU or AUDIO feel productive because they light up yellow tiles. But vowels carry less information than common consonants — most five-letter words contain an A or an E anyway, so "yes, there's an E" barely narrows the field. Consonant skeletons are what identify words: knowing a word contains C, R and T does far more work than knowing it contains three vowels. Solvers rank ADIEU well outside the top hundred openers.
The two-word system
Many strong players fix their first two guesses as a pair covering ten distinct high-frequency letters, then start solving on guess three. Reliable pairs:
| Pair | Letters covered |
|---|---|
| CRANE + SLOTH | C R A N E S L O T H |
| SLATE + CORNY | S L A T E C O R N Y |
| TRACE + SOLID | T R A C E S O L I D |
Fixed pairs cost you a little on easy days (you'll miss some guess-two solves) and save you a lot on hard days. If you play on Hard Mode, skip the system — Hard Mode forces you to reuse confirmed letters, so a flexible second guess is mandatory.
Adapting after guess one
- Grey everywhere? Pivot to the other half of the alphabet: if CRANE whiffs, SPOIL or DOILY types cover new ground.
- One yellow vowel? Slide it through positions rather than guessing new vowels — position information beats letter information mid-game.
- Three-plus greens by guess three? Beware the trap families (_IGHT, _OUND, S_ARE). Spend a guess eliminating multiple candidates at once instead of trying them one by one.
Already burned your opener today? Our Wordle hints for today go from "first letter" to the full answer, one reveal at a time.