This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Nicole Levine, MFA. Nicole Levine is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. She has more than 20 years of experience creating technical documentation and leading support teams at major web hosting and software companies. Nicole also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Portland State University and teaches composition, fiction-writing, and zine-making at various institutions.
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Are you curious about Wordle, the new viral puzzle game taking Twitter by storm? The premise of Wordle is simple—you have to guess a five-letter word in six tries. We'll show you where to find Wordle on the web, teach you the rules of the game, share your results with friends, and give you all the tips and tricks you'll need to become a Wordle pro!
Steps
Where can I play Wordle?
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1You can play Wordle on the web at https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html. And while there is no official mobile app for Wordle, you can easily play the game in a web browser on your Android, iPhone, or iPad.
- While many mobile apps in the App Store and Play Store have "Wordle" in their titles, they are not the real Wordle. They're fine to play, but if you want the real Wordle, these are not it.
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2There is only one Wordle puzzle per day. If you don't guess the Wordle of the day, you'll have to wait until tomorrow to guess a new 5-letter word.
How do you play Wordle?
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1Enter a 5-letter word. You'll have 6 chances to guess the 5-letter word of the day, so make every guess count! Try using a word that contains many different letters to narrow down your future guesses. Type your first guess, and then press or click Enter to see if you've matched any letters.
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2Check the tile colors. After you make a guess, the tile colors will change:
- A green tile indicates that you've guessed the correct letter in the correct place in the word.
- A yellow tile means you've guessed a letter that's in the word, but not in the right spot.
- A gray tile means that letter is not in today's word.
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3Guess another word. Use the clues you got from your first guess to try again. Remember, don't reuse any of the gray letters, as they are definitely not in today's Wordle.
- If you correctly guessed a letter at the correct position (a green tile), make sure to use that letter at that position in your second guess.
- Letters can appear more than once in the same word.
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4Continue entering your guesses until all letters are green. When you've correctly guessed the word, you'll see a pop-up window with your statistics, as well as a countdown timer that tells you how long it'll be until the next Wordle is available.
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5Share your score. If you want to show others how you did, click the Share button to copy a colorful grid that you can paste into a new tweet, Facebook post, email, or instant message.
- Since everybody is playing the same Wordle puzzle, your results won't divulge the word of the day to your friends and followers.
- You can return to your statistics (and the Share button) at any time by clicking the bar graph icon at the top of Wordle.
Tips and tricks
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1For your first guess, pick a word that contains at least three vowels. The goal of your starting word is to narrow down the options for the remaining guesses. Using three vowels is great way to narrow down the options for subsequent words. Try any of these multi-vowel words for a top-notch first guess:
- Cause
- Irate
- Adieu
- Radio
- Abode
- Hokey
- Audio
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2Consider possible words based on the results of your first guess. If you've selected a good first word, you should have some yellow and/or green tiles to work with. Think of some 5-letter words that contain those letters, but that don't contain any of the gray (incorrect) guesses.
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3Pay attention to the positions of yellow tiles. A yellow tile means that letter is in the Wordle of the day, but not at the position you've guessed. Consider the most common locations of the yellow letters in 5-letter words you know. For example, if you have a yellow K in the second position of your first guess, you might try placing it in the 5th position instead—many 5-letter words end with ck.
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4Don't reuse gray tiles. If you've already tried a letter that isn't in today's Wordle, remember not to include it in your second or subsequent guesses.
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5Think about letters that commonly appear together in words. Many letters often appear in sets of two or three in English. Some common examples that can help you narrow down tougher words:
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At the beginning of a word:
- tr
- th
- cr
- br
- qu
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At the end of a word:
- ck
- ng
- ny
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Vowel combos:
- ai
- ea
- ou
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At the beginning of a word:
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6Search the web for 5-letter words. Some may consider this a Wordle cheat, but it can be helpful in a pinch. Try searching the web for "5 letter words that start with TR" for inspiration.
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7Some Wordles contain more than one of the same letter. If you're running into trouble after three guesses, try reusing or doubling green or yellow vowels or consonants. For example, "Creep" or "Grill."
Expert Q&A
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QuestionIs a plural "s" a good ending?
Nicole Levine, MFANicole Levine is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. She has more than 20 years of experience creating technical documentation and leading support teams at major web hosting and software companies. Nicole also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Portland State University and teaches composition, fiction-writing, and zine-making at various institutions.
wikiHow Technology WriterAs long as the word is in the dictionary, it might show up in Wordle! But I've been playing for a while now and still haven't seen any words ending with "S." -
QuestionMy share button just says it's been copied to the clipboard and I can't do anything with it. No option to copy so I can't paste to facebook. I guess I need actual step-by-step instructions.Nicole Levine, MFANicole Levine is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. She has more than 20 years of experience creating technical documentation and leading support teams at major web hosting and software companies. Nicole also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Portland State University and teaches composition, fiction-writing, and zine-making at various institutions.
wikiHow Technology WriterWhen you click "Share," it's just like clicking "Copy." After clicking "Share," create a new Facebook post, right-click on the typing area (the place where you'd type your new post), and then click "Paste" to paste in your grid. -
QuestionCan you use place names or person names?Nicole Levine, MFANicole Levine is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. She has more than 20 years of experience creating technical documentation and leading support teams at major web hosting and software companies. Nicole also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Portland State University and teaches composition, fiction-writing, and zine-making at various institutions.
wikiHow Technology WriterWordle doesn't use any proper nouns for words. However, some place and person names may also be dictionary words! For example, I've seen the word Robin in Wordle, which is a bird and a name.
About This Article
The objective of Wordle is to figure out a 5-letter word puzzle using clues about which letters are in the word and where in the word they appear. The daily Wordle puzzle is a 5 by 6 grid of squares. Once you start, you’ll have 6 chances to guess the word. Use your keyboard, or the clickable keyboard under the puzzle grid, to enter any 5-letter word in the top row. If you’re satisfied with your word, hit enter. The letters in the word will change color to reveal your first set of clues. If a letter tile turns gray, that means it doesn’t appear in the word of the day. If a tile turns yellow, that means that letter is in the word, but it’s not in the correct location. Finally, if a tile turns green, that means you’ve correctly guessed both the letter and its location in the word. Use the clues you got from the first word to fill in the second row on the grid. This time, don’t use any of the letters that turned gray in the first row, since you’ve already ruled them out. If you got a letter that turned yellow, you can use it again, but try it in a different position this time. However, if you got a green letter, use it in the same place you did last time. As you work your way down the grid, use the process of elimination to figure out which letters are correct and where they go, until you’re able to guess the correct word. Keep in mind, a letter can appear in the word more than once. Once you manage to get all the tiles to turn green, you’ll know that you’ve solved the puzzle. To share your results with friends, click the “Share” button and paste the results into a text or post. It’ll show up as a fun grid of grey, yellow and green squares showing how you got to the final word.
